I have two old dell laptops we don't want anymore. What do we do with them? Dumpster? Donate? If donate, how do we wipe them clean of any of our sensitive info like passwords etc?
I'm thinking the only real way to wipe a hard drive completely is to physically destroy it.?ÿ And digging the drive out of a laptop can be frustrating.?ÿ I've done it twice and I still have the drives sitting here.?ÿ One is over 15 years old.?ÿ?ÿ
Maybe find a tree trimming crew that is running a large wood-chipper.?ÿ Their boss might tell you no, but the guys running the equipment would probably get a big kick out of it.?ÿ?ÿ
I've simply drilled a few holes through each hard drive, platters, case and all.
You can use CCleaner or Glary Utilities (both free) to wipe the drive, and you can specify the level of security.
Basically, if you delete the data on your hard drive, it can still be restored -- maybe not everything, but you'd likely be surprised how much you can restore. When you "delete" data on your drive, the data stays there, but the hard drive sets those sectors as available so they can eventually be overwritten. As you use the hard drive after deleting stuff, it will slowly overwrite previous data in those sectors. But some stuff may never get truly overwritten.
So, what CCleaner and Glary do is they repeatedly delete and then overwrite those sectors with dummy data. You can set it to do it just a couple of times, or you can set it to do it 50 times, as I recall. I think at that point your data is truly gone. But certainly don't hold me to that -- there could actually be folks out there that could still retrieve (I find that hard to believe, but hey, I've been wrong once or twice ???? ).
So yes, probably the absolute best measure is to just destroy the drive.
AR-15. Make it fun!
In our area, we have an organization that accepts old computers and parts. They support and employ people with disabilities by using these parts to build computers for them. They have programs to help disabled folks find jobs, get food and housing, etc. If they receive parts that are just too old to use, they disassemble and recycle the recyclable parts.?ÿWe donate computer-related stuff to them for this purpose.
Perhaps you have an organization like that in your area?
Usually about twice each year there is a special 'dump week' for old electronic/electrical items.?ÿ This is coordinated with a local entity, in our county it is the Extension Service.?ÿ I believe they sort through them before demolition of some sort to recover useable parts worth the effort to save.?ÿ Everything from laptops and printers to toasters and microwave ovens.
My friend Hunter just drops them off at a repair center.
If you overwrite all sectors once, nobody will recover any old data by just plugging it into a computer and reading it.?ÿ After that, it takes special technology, time, and $$$ to recover anything, so only if you are of interest to a government agency, or have valuable trade secrets, or a Swiss bank account should you worry.
Drilling holes through a hard drive is the standard manner of rendering them finally inoperable. You don't need to be dainty, just drill through the laptop and all. As for recycling old computers, there are several recyclers in my area that will take them for free.?ÿ You probably have a few in your area, also.
There's no shortage of underserved students who would put them to good use. The hard drives can be?ÿ reformatted with the operating system or something like CCleaner.?ÿ
How can I tell if my laptop is too old to donate to a student for onli (datadoctors.com)
What do you have on your laptops that you need to drill holes into the hard drives ???? ? A quick format would wipe the data clean. Do it a second time and you need a professional software to even retrieve something that is coherent.?ÿ
Let's be honest, what would someone want with old CAD files of a lot boundary? The only one that would want them are your clients and they already have both hardcopy and maybe pdf files.
You are putting too much importance into data that is really important only to the one who commissioned it in the first place.
The only thing that I think you don't want other people to find out are porn files.
My experience with recovering deleted files, is that success is inversely proportionate to the value of said files.
You'd be surprised at what you can recover using a free utility called Recuva. But yes, I see your point. ????
Hey, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean everyone isn't out to get you!
I was about to suggest this but saw you beat me to it. Brad, you can do a search for wiping a hard drive you can find options for doing it yourself (operating system specific), using software, or even hardware keys that supposedly do it for you.
Financial info. The days of computers being only for CAD drawings and such are long gone.?ÿ
I would batter any old computers to atoms if I could, no way I would donate one.?ÿ
Talk to SWMBO, the students in her GATE classes were hacking everything like it was nothing, and they were freshman in High School.?ÿ
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Most people donate laptops and remove the hard drives.
