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Artois


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Old Laptop disposal
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Morning all

I have an old laptop that I used for my business a few years ago when I first started and has just sat in a cupboard since getting a new one, I have deleted all my clients files and any sensitive data and uninstalled all my programs.

What is the best way to dispose of this now? I hear lots of stories about still being able to access files from the hard drive even after being deleted so how do others go about getting rid/destroying old laptops?

Any pointers much appreciated as always

Cheers



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Doug

These are only my opinions of how I see things and therefore should not be taken as advice
johnhemming


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The problem with "deletion" is that there can be a number of steps. (looking at it with windows)
a) deleting the file (and it goes into the recycle bin) - this is relatively easy to reverse
b) empty the recycle bin - this i harder to reverse, but strictly it just removes the index to the data. In theory a lot of the data can potentially be recovered simply by reading the disk and rebuilding the files. This is not perfect, but might find something.
c) Rewriting the disk by doing a hard format or something - after this point it gets much much harder to rebuild the data, but you need to be careful that the formatting actually does write on top of the original data - sometimes it just reflags the drive as formatted and rewrites the indices.
d) Melt down the hard drive (at this point you are not going to get anything back).

If I were you I would go for c), but make sure that the hard drive is actually formatted rather than just flagged as formatted.

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Leger


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Hi Doug. 

Do you still have the windows disc and also what version of windows?



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VinceH


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Hi Doug,

The actual solution is to use software which overwrites any unused space on the hard drive several times. This will not only ensure all the indexes John mentions are updated with new information, but the actual data that was stored has been completely rewritten and isn't recoverable.

The other options are:

  • Not to get rid of the laptop at all (I have a pile of old laptops for just this reason)
  • Take out the existing hard drive (which you'll keep forever and ever) and replace it with a new one.

If you do the latter, the laptop itself is safe to send to throw away (though this should really be frowned upon). If, on the other hand, you want to give (or sell) it to someone else, you could buy a new hard drive and put that in it - but then you'd probably want to put an operating system on it. If you don't have the Windows discs*, you could always put Linux on it; Linux is freely downloadable.

* I guess this might be why John asked if you had the discs, and which version of Windows it is. Depending on which version, you might be able to create a new disc - and if not, you might be able to download the disc image from Microsoft if you have your licence key for the laptop. (Should be on a sticker, possibly hiding behind the battery - but whether you can download might depend if its an OEM version).

 



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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software

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Leger


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VinceH wrote:

Hi Doug,

The actual solution is to use software which overwrites any unused space on the hard drive several times. This will not only ensure all the indexes John mentions are updated with new information, but the actual data that was stored has been completely rewritten and isn't recoverable.

Hi Vince

It's a very long time since I last used something that.  There used to be a cracking piece of software (1)  that overwrote it up to 9 times, but I only used it to write over deleted files, not a full hard drive.  In them days of course, files weren't very big and neither were hard drives.

(1) I can't remember what it was called.



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Cheshire


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If I recall correctly what a policeman told me- stick a magnet next to it, or just take a hammer to it.

No idea if either works, I've still got my old PCs but was pondering, for a millisecond,the other day about whether to get rid of my old one. It does however have the ancient sage on it so does used occasionally (take about an hour to wind it up!)

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Artois


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Hi all

Thanks for the replies, next problem I have is I can not find the charger so can not even turn it on at the moment, will have to have another look today but must admit the hammer method seems the most appealing at present

Cheers



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Doug

These are only my opinions of how I see things and therefore should not be taken as advice
VinceH


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A magnet is a brute force solution that is not guaranteed to work. You might render some of your old data unreadable, but you can't be sure how little or how much is still recoverable by someone with the right tools. The same is probably true of the hammer - that could be effective against the hard disc casing and circuitry, but the platter - the bit the data is actually stored on - can survive.

For the power supply, if you can't find it look on the laptop case for labelling etc. You'll probably find something that specifies its amperage and voltage; with that and a multi-adapter you might be able to forget about the original one.

What I'm basically saying here and previously is: Don't needlessly destroy and throw away what could be perfectly serviceable equipment! :(

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Shamus


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A handy instruction video on how to eradicate all hope of anyone finding your data.

 

biggrin



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Shaun

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