How can i erase my computer's memory when i can't even turn it on?

Question

recently, i discovered that i can't turn on my ancient computer any more so i decided to throw it away. but there are still documents in the computer undeleted (actual a whole lot of them), is there some way to get rid of those documents. i'm throwing the computer away, so even if i have to damage it, it wouldn't be much of a promble

Answer 1

Remove the hard drive.
Put it in a strong bag (don't want to get hit with flying parts) and smash it with a hammer until the disk shatters.
All safely gone now.
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Answer 2

You data is stored on a hard drive, so if you remove the hard drive the data will be removed from the machine. There is no data in memory when there is no power to the memory.

You can also take the hard drive and install it in another computer so that you do not have to lose all of those documents if you wish. Or once installed than you can delete the files, but actually erasing the files requires overwrite the whole hard drive with random 1s and 0s which requires a special program.

However you could disassemble the drive and take the disks out and scratch the hell out of each disk rendering it unusable.

I think I covered all your options, hope that helps.
Peace.

Answer 3

How old is the computer is the hard drive like 1.2 Gig?

If you take out the drive plug it into a new computer sometimes you can access those files plus you could reformat the drive.

Then you could reuse the HD.

Answer 4

If you are discarding the PC, just remove the hard drive and destroy it -- nail, hammer, whatever. I intend to do that when and if I upgrade.