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I want to scrap my 10 years-old obsolescent desktop computer. I haven't got a clue what's inside a computer, so what parts do I need to destroy to prevent anyone accessing confidential information and how do I recognise those parts?
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Assuming you are recycling the PC at the local council electrical recycling place I'd just take out hard disk - example here: tinyurl.com/7auckro - usually two or four screws and smash it up. The rest is then safe to send for recycling.
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The hard disk is where the data is, and is the only bit you need worry about. Here's one:
tinyurl.com/7zwh8ks
but they also come in black.
It may be in a tray or otherwise not immediately obvious, should be in on four screws and will have a power cable and a wider (usually grey) data cable going into it.
So you can take it out and do what you want with it.
However, you can effectively destroy the data on it with a free product. There habve been other recommendations in the past but I always go for Killdisk - www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm - but you'll need to install it onto a bootable CD or floppy or (probably easier) USB stick. It will take some time to do it's work, but will overwrite the data in such a way that recovery would be only for super experts, if at all.
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If you were happy that you had erased the disk without destroying it, you could put the PC on ebay with a 1p starting price, no reserve and local pick-up only. Then someone might take it away for you, and pay you (a small amount) for the privilege.
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>> you could put the PC on ebay
If you are thinking of ebaying it, do you have a Windows disk you can include with the PC?
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>> I haven't got a clue what's inside a computer, >>
Since the computer is obsolete, and you do not care about what happens to it, this is an ideal opportunity for you to open up the case and find out what the innards look like.
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>> >> I haven't got a clue what's inside a computer, >>
>>
>> Since the computer is obsolete, and you do not care about what happens to it,
>> this is an ideal opportunity for you to open up the case and find out
>> what the innards look like.
Thanks everyone. I'll take the route of destroying the hard drive. It'll help to satisfy my latent urge to be destructive! I'll then have a good look at the rest of the innards before taking the remains to the recycling centre.
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I ran Crap Cleaner over my laptop at the maximum strength and gave in to a charity shop. This is of course less conclusive that destroying the hard disk and dumping the lot but there has been no comeback after two years.
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>> www.pcpro.co.uk/features/373351/five-ways-to-destroy-your-data
>>
I decided to dismantle the hard drive and destroy the platter(s). www.pcpro.co.uk/features/373351/five-ways-to-destroy-your-data refers to platters (i.e plural), but I've only found one platter in the hard drive ~ a shiny disc about 95 mm o.d. and 25 mm i.d. Should I have found more than one?
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>> (i.e plural), but I've only found one platter in the hard drive ~ a shiny
>> disc about 95 mm o.d. and 25 mm i.d. Should I have found more than
>> one?
>>
Not necessarily.
Depends on total capacity of the drive and the packing density.
Both have gone up in leaps and bounds since the first hard drives...
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>> Not necessarily.
>>
>> Depends on total capacity of the drive and the packing density.
Thanks. In that case I'm going to destroy the disc and the memory cards. Anything else I should attend to?
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 17:10
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>> Anything else I should attend to?
I wouldn't have thought so.
I wouldn't even bother with the memory cards (assuming they are just RAM, and not storage cards)
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Destroying RAM memory modules is pointless - they are RAM! They hold no info without power.
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I was only doing what tinyurl.com/75v7m28 suggested, but thanks for the information anyway. With the help of forum members I'm learning all the time.
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How do I scrap my obsolescent desktop? - Victorbox
