what is safest way to get rid of an old computer,which may have personal information on it?

Answer 1

The only place where there is information that you have stored on the computer is on the Hard Drive. Open your computer's case. You will see a ribbon cable that goes from the motherboard to the floppy drive (if you have one) and a cable that goes to the Hard Drive which might also go to a CD drive, etc.

Follow the ribbon cable to the hard drive. It should have just a power cable and a ribbon cable going to it. It is usually about an inch tall, maybe 3-4 inches wide, and 5-6 inches long. You will probably need a phillips screwdriver to remove this. Remove the cables as well. When you have it out, that is the only thing you will have to destroy. Soak it in water for about an hour, then with a hammer and a screwdirver, punch through the case in a couple of spots and throw it in the garbage.

There is no info saved on any of the other parts of your computer.

Answer 2

As others have said, the only place where personal information is stored is the hard drive. You don't have to go nuts and physically destroy it, especially if someone else can use the computer. The most practical way to clean your drive is to zero it out - that means using a program that will write zeroes all over the data on the drive. If you open your computer and find the hard drive, see who the manufacturer is. Common manufacturers are Seagate, Western Digital and Maxtor. Once you know this, go to the manufacturer's web page. They usually have disc tools/utilities that will zero out the drive. You can download the program and write it to a floppy disc, then follow the instructions to zero out the drive (it's also sometimes called a low-level format, but you don't see that terminology much these days). Do this several times. Yes, someone could still potentially retrieve the data, but it would take time, like months, plus they'd have to have specialized tools and software. If you were to to this to your drive and take it to a data recovery specialist they'd charge you thousands of dollars. So zeroing out the drive repeatedly is enough for most people who don't have military data on their drives (and if you do, contact your employer for how to dispose of the drive).

Once you've zeroed the drive a few times, reinstall the operating system from the CD (or whatever) that came with your computer. If it's at all modern (less than five years old, for instance), see if you can donate it to a local school or charity. I have friends who have donated their older computers to the local humane society, animal rescue groups, shelters for abused women and children and churches, all of which were extremely grateful. There's no reason to physically destroy it if someone could use it. You might even be able to get a small tax write-off for it.

Answer 3

Why should you destroy the whole computer when the information is stored ONLY on the hard disk drive. It is also stored in the RAM but only when the computer is running. Once you have unplugged it the information residing in the RAM is wiped-off. So if you are really concerned about personal information ending up in the wrong hands keep the hdd. You can wipe off hard disk drives, there are lots of tools on the internet that will allow you to do such thing.

Answer 4

All of the personal information is on the hard disk, so you can take that out and do what you want with the rest of the computer.
In order to delete all of the information on the hard disk, beyond anyone's ability to get any information back, you need to format and re-fill the hard disk at least 13 times.
The only other way is to destroy the hard disk, ensuring that no pieces are left.
Of course, as it is very unlikely that anything you have on there is important enough for someone to go to extreme measures to retrieve it, you could just re-format it or use it as a spare data drive for your new computer.
Enjoy. :-)

Answer 5

Hi >
Some of your answers are OK, but as an addendum_
Idisposed of an old one, but simply removed the hard drive.
That takes care of stored info.
I dismantled the item, and cut up the discs with a pair of scissors,
before putting into the local "stuff" skip at the dump.
No way is info retreivable..
Another way is to use "passport drives" which whizz in & out in fine fashion, to be stored in a safe place..
The machine itself is therefore not in a state to give any info.
Hope that helps to all.
Bob.

Answer 6

ONLY DO THE FOLLOWING IF YOU REALLY WANT OT DESTROY ALL THE DATA NEVER TO BE RETURNED AGAIN!!!!!!!

You can a) user registory editor and mess it up
b) select all the files on your harddrive and delete them, that right ALL OF THEM even the WINDOWS one. When you delete them you computer will just pack up.

Then remove the hard drive and destroy it however you so wish. Hammer it open then crush all the tiny pieces into a few million pieces. Then if you really wish you can do the same with the other circuit boards. You can even burn them with fire and alcohol!!! Just make sure you get rid of the hard drive and smash it into millions of pieces so that your information can never be retrieved. Then for additional security take the hard drive pieces to different dump sites!!!


Hope this helps, have fun destroying you computer

Answer 7

If the computer will be used by a new owner, reformat the hard drive and do a fresh install of the operating system. That puts the system back to the way it was, right out of the box.

Answer 8

No disrespect meant to the young lady who said take out the mother board and destroy it, sorry love ur wrong its the hard drive u nhave to destroy, start by reformatting it then destroy it, beleive me it is amasing how badly damaged a pc and its hard drive can be and yet the info on the hd still can be retrived.

It does cost big companies thousands to have their info on their hd retreived, but 4 the likes of us little guys it aint worth it unless a crime has been commited and the police want ur hd as evidence.

hope i have helped u k8.

Answer 9

well, when i renewed my pc about 5 years ago, i allowed my kids to wreck the old one, cos i was worried that anything on it could get into the wrong hands. not that there was much on it cos it was a run of the mill family used computer.
i put it on the patio and allowed them to take a hammer to it, they had great fun. then they flooded it with a hose. it was great fun, though they did know that it was a one off and they wouldnt be allowed to do it again hahaha

Answer 10

http://www.sys-shield.com - AbsoluteShield File Shredder

Even formatting the hard drive won't do it; there's loads of software to recover files from the magnetic 'footprints' left behind. Even overwriting won't do it.
Absolute File Shredder overwrites the info 35 times with a specific pattern of data that will make it impossible to recover.