Best way to dispose of old laptops ?

[sasguru]

Obviously you want to wipe the disc clean. Any reliable software to do this or do you need to take the hard disk out and break it into pieces with a hammer?

[TestMangler]

Obviously you want to wipe the disc clean. Any reliable software to do this or do you need to take the hard disk out and break it into pieces with a hammer?

Ask your butler to sort it.....

[PAH]

Just overwrite it will a load of freely obtainable porn, then sell at a premium on ebay.

No-one will bother trying to undelete anything that is still accessible as they'll be too busy craving pot noodles.

[craig1]

I usually just whip out the drive and dispose of the rest. If it's relatively recent then I'll wipe and rebuild for a family member. For example, my gran has my old laptop that she uses for her over 70s chat groups and emails so there's no need for a fast, modern machine.

I never seem to get around to disposing of removed drives though, I must have a good number hanging around in my junk box. Occasionally I'll dismantle one just for the hell of it.

[Support Monkey]

Big hammer everytime

[TestMangler]

I usually just whip out the drive and dispose of the rest. If it's relatively recent then I'll wipe and rebuild for a family member. For example, my gran has my old laptop that she uses for her over 70s chat groups and emails so there's no need for a fast, modern machine.

I never seem to get around to disposing of removed drives though, I must have a good number hanging around in my junk box. Occasionally I'll dismantle one just for the hell of it.

Linky please ??????

[craig1]

Linky please ??????

AOHell

[TestMangler]

Big hammer everytime

do-do-do-do, do-do....can't touch dis......

[mooshld]

Computer Aid International

They are a registered charity so if its a company asset there may be a tax advantage in using them.

[DaveB]

Obviously you want to wipe the disc clean. Any reliable software to do this or do you need to take the hard disk out and break it into pieces with a hammer?

Depends on how clean you really want it to be.

Delete all the partions, reformat, install an OS and then fill the space with crap. Repeat that a coouple of times and someone would really have to want your data to do anything with it and even then it would probably cost more than the value of the data on the disc to get it back.

There are plenty of commercial products that will do a secure deletion for you. The more you pay the better they get.

If you really, really, really, dont want someone getting your data then physical destruction is the only way. And just hitting it lots with hammer wont do it. Either pay for it to be done properly or dismantle it yourself and completely destroy the platters.