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Safely donating / recycling a computer?

LadyMLadyM Registered User regular
edited August 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
I have a fairly old desktop computer that I'd like to donate or give to electronics recyclers, but of course I don't want anyone getting hold of personal information. Does anyone know of a reliable place where I can donate it? I live in Seattle.

LadyM on

Posts

  • FoomyFoomy Registered User regular
    run DBAN over any disks in the system before you donate it, than you can be 100% sure that no personal information will remain on it.

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  • minirhyderminirhyder BerlinRegistered User regular
    Why not just keep the hard drive and recycle the rest?

    Alternatively just smash the hard drive and then give it away.

    Recyclers don't typically try to make use of stuff as far as I'm aware.
    For the recycling itself, Staples does it.

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  • defreakdefreak Registered User regular
    Depending on how old the computer is, schools may be interested in taking it from you.

  • Psychotic OnePsychotic One The Lord of No Pants Parts UnknownRegistered User regular
    Best buy will accept most electronics. Their only rule is no hard drives.

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  • OrganichuOrganichu poops peesRegistered User regular
    i'd google around for a computer thrift store. i work (in philly) at a nonprofit that accepts donated computers (and recycles busted stuff). stuff like optical drives (dvd-rom or better) or even old-as-fuck-RAM is mega helpful to us because so many donated machines have that stuff stripped or it's just totally nonfunctional. we have entire buckets of 256mb pc2100 ram and dvd-rom drives and such, and we go through it more quickly than we can take it in.

  • The AnonymousThe Anonymous Uh, uh, uhhhhhh... Uh, uh.Registered User regular
    edited August 2012
    RE personal info: HDD vendors generally provide software at no cost for exactly this sort of thing (they can also scan the HDDs for bad sectors, but that's a moot point here). They usually come in both Windows and DOS flavours, so you can either run them from another drive or burn a .iso and boot from that. It's as simple as choosing the drive in a menu and telling the software to write zeros to it. Of course, it goes without saying you should back up any data you care about beforehand.

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  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    When I did this with my folks computer I just pulled the HDD and kept it in a shoebox. It's not the most elegant or technical solution but it made my mother feel secure.

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