Reply to: where can i get free computer equipment companies get rid off

[unemployed]

proper way would be to use one of these

HD-3WXL Hard Drive Degausser

[petergriffin]

Yes local IT could do it for free, but if they screw it up in any way the liabilities to their employer can get very big, very fast.

Local IT can and indeed do screw it up, but how much more than external contractors (and the ones I've met in the data cleansing business are very much on the lowest end...)?

What added value do they offer? I would be curious to know what software they use and if it's better than THC-Secure Deletion Tools.

[AtW]

Check out your local IBM office this time next week...

[stek]

All they have to do is let my Mrs save a file on it and it's ruined forever, wiped...

[DaveB]

Most companies can't give PCs away because they have to be safely shredded of confidential data. Of course with a live linux cd this could be done for free in 5 minutes, but the pointless IT managers would rather waste money paying an external company to do that and then sell it (I've bought a few ex-corp laptops this way, my fav lappie is an old IBM Thinkpad).

It's not a question of whether it can be done free or not, it's a question of traceability and liability. The commercial data and hardware disposal companies are (or should be) certified to recognised standards and will provide written certified evidence that the destruction has been done in accordance with those standards -Dates, times, locations, serial numbers, techniques, descriptions etc. This helps to indemnify the client against any damages resulting from data on kit that has been disposed of coming back to bite them.

Yes local IT could do it for free, but if they screw it up in any way the liabilities to their employer can get very big, very fast.

[Platypus]

Except for the very determined, it's probably enough to snap off the IDE/SATA/SCSI connectors

[stek]

I had a stack of old hard drives of various origin (Some corporate, some personal) and figured I'd do the same before disposing of them. I thought I'd skip the "open them up" bit, but it turns out they're actually hardy little ****ers! Even my proper reciprocating saw wasn't overly happy and that's like cutting butter normally!

We had loads of them knocking about, used them as coasters...

[vwdan]

At the nuclear power station we'd split them open and get the lads in the engineering dept to grind the platters...

I had a stack of old hard drives of various origin (Some corporate, some personal) and figured I'd do the same before disposing of them. I thought I'd skip the "open them up" bit, but it turns out they're actually hardy little ****ers! Even my proper reciprocating saw wasn't overly happy and that's like cutting butter normally!

[AMH]

lots of large corporates & government now Lease so they dont have to pay for EE waste recycling & just hand them back to HP/Dell, etc. at the end of their 3-5 yr cycle.
Also some places have stopped selling to employees as their insurance does not cover them.

I know remploy have a lot of contracts dealing with surplus/binned IT equipment.

[stek]

I can only assume the cost of paying somebody to open the PC, remove the HD and make sure it is disposed safely dents the IT department profit margin.

For the record, it doesn't have to be a Linux cd to shred a hd. Back in my day we would do this out of a dos floppy.

I assume for new(er) hard drives with a gpt partition you can only use a linux/unix live cd.

At the nuclear power station we'd split them open and get the lads in the engineering dept to grind the platters...

[d000hg]

I assume also, most people wouldn't be bothered to take/buy a cheap old PC if they had to buy a disk and install Windows on it, etc. When my ex employer did this, they wiped and did a clean install of Windows using the license key the PC came with.

[petergriffin]

why not take the hard drive out before disposal ?

I can only assume the cost of paying somebody to open the PC, remove the HD and make sure it is disposed safely dents the IT department profit margin.

For the record, it doesn't have to be a Linux cd to shred a hd. Back in my day we would do this out of a dos floppy.

I assume for new(er) hard drives with a gpt partition you can only use a linux/unix live cd.

[BolshieBastard]

Makes me chuckle this. About 10 years ago I ran another business and came across a guy who actively re cycled pc's. Or so he said. He'd got funding from the council and an enterprise grant etc but just wouldnt do any business!

I tried to link him up with local projects that were crying out for old reconditioned pc's but he wouldnt have any of it. Im sure he was working a scam just to get money off the council and local enterprise department. Weird.

[d000hg]

Funnily enough, nor does this.

With PG, every topic is an opportunity to talk up Linux

[unemployed]

Most companies can't give PCs away because they have to be safely shredded of confidential data. Of course with a live linux cd this could be done for free in 5 minutes, but the pointless IT managers would rather waste money paying an external company to do that and then sell it (I've bought a few ex-corp laptops this way, my fav lappie is an old IBM Thinkpad).

why not take the hard drive out before disposal ?