Safely dispose of old laptop

[Teacher T]

Dear all,

I have an old laptop, which crashed a while ago.

I managed to get the files needed from it through starting it up in security mode.

I have bought a new laptop already, but don't want to just throw away the old one.

How do I ensure all my files are deleted from my computer, so they don't fall into the wrong hands?

And does anybody know a charity project that might be happy to get an old laptop after it has been cleaned of my files?

Thank you for your help!

[thai3]

take the HD out and smash it up with a hammer, chuck in the bin, they take anything here

[lostinisaan]

Your username is Teacher T and you're asking such a question?

Couldn't you get the thing running again and give it to kids of a poor school with plenty of useful English learning programs on it?

[tingtong]

it takes very little effort to recover text, jpg, etc files from HDD.

as above suggested, get it out, and smash it, the only way to ensure your personal files wont end up in the wrong hands.

[Tawan77]

If you have the know-how you can just format the drive instead of smashing it, and donate the whole machine to a suitable organization. They'll get a fresh OS on it if it's beyond your skills.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[bubba]

Simply formatting the HD will not make your data unrecoverable. You would also need to do a secure erase where your HD is overwritten with one or more passes.

Edited April 24, 2016 by bubba

[WhizBang]

Agreed, either remove and smash the HD, or use a good secure erase program to render the files unrecoverable.

[Bench499d]

Google DBAN. Basically you download an ISO, burn it to a CD, and use it to start up the laptop. The program runs automatically, just use the default wipe settings. Nobody is going to expend the effort to try to recover anything after a secure wipe unless you are a spy or a criminal. Then donate it to charity.

http://www.howtogeek.com/115573/htg-explains-why-you-only-have-to-wipe-a-disk-once-to-erase-it/

[mgjackson69]

Pull the hard drive and disassemble it.

Break up the platters, and keep the magnets to play with.

[lostinisaan]

Pull the hard drive and disassemble it.

Break up the platters, and keep the magnets to play with.

Please donate the magnets to our school to have an example when teaching magnetism in science.

"School has no money to buy magnets." i wish it was a joke.

[chrisinth]

Simply formatting the HD will not make your data unrecoverable. You would also need to do a secure erase where your HD is overwritten with one or more passes.

Agree totally, no need to destroy what is likely a good HDD which could be used by someone needy for it.

I normally use Killdisk, which does come in a freeware version. In the freeware version, it will only overwrite once as opposed to multiple times with the professional flavoured release. Unless you have really sensitive information on your old drive, one overwrite pass will be enough.

OP, here is a link that reviews the latest release of Killdisk:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/data-destruction/fl/killdisk-review.htm

Edited April 24, 2016 by chrisinth

[bubba]

This probably is not the case for Teacher T, but if it is Mac, you can use the included system utility "Disk Utility", select Secure Erase, then choose one, two three or seven overwrites.

[lostinisaan]

OP, if you don't find a solution what to do with it, please send me a message. I'd get it work again and give it to a poor school where they can't afford to buy a PC, or a notebook.

Of course will you get all the information where it goes to. I have a Rosetta Stone DVD, which would be a good start to help a poor school to teach the kids English even when the teachers can't speak the language.

Great Sunday.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I don't know why people come up with stupid solutions.

The OP can simply remove the HDD and place it into a caddy, costing around 200 baht. Thereby keeping having a secondary back up of the original on an external hard drive. No need to destroy a useful bit of kit.

Then you can donate it to lostinisaan in order for it to go to a local school, safe in the knowledge that your sensitive data remains with you.

[CharlieH]

Personally, I would remove the hard drive, drill a 1/4" hole through it, and pass the laptop on (minus the HDD)