How do I dispose of an old computer?

Question

I have an old computer and my husband did something to make the monitor go completely black. I am not sure if the hard drive still works or not, we bought a new computer. Should I try to sell it or just dispose of it? If so how do I remove all of my info before someone else gets it? I am not really good with computers, so easy to understand terms would be appreciated.

Answer 1

pull the hdd slave it into your other pc and format it then donate it to a local church ect

Answer 2

Dear Bird,
Before you think of disposing your computer, it would be good if you could check if it is just the monitor that has the problem. And if it is so, you can have the monitor fixed or changed. Sometimes, it could just be the cables too.
Do a simple test.
If you look behind the monitor, you will find two connectors. One would be blue and another black.
Black is the power connector which gives power supply to the monitor while blue is the data cable(You can also ensure by tracing the cables from the back of the monitor to power bar and tower to know which is which).
Check if the power light on the monitor is green.
If it is green, it is receiving power, else no.
Next, detach the blue connector and see if you get a display of floating Red, Blue, Green and White colors on the screen.
If you do not, then it the problem with the data cable, you gotta change that.
If you do get floating colors, then it is something in the tower.

Try these simple steps. It may save some money. :-)

Answer 3

If you wish to dispose of the system, remove the harddrive from the old system. The harddrive is normally mounted on the lower front part inside the case, there is a ribbon cable about three inches wide and a power cable connected to it. Disconnect those two cables, remove the harddrive and either save it in a drawer or destroy the harddrive (great way to relieve frustration if you use a hammer). The harddrive will look like the one on the link below. To dispose of the rest of the system, you can either donate it to a school, charity, church, etc. or you can sell it. Once the harddrive is removed, there is no need to fear of someone stealing your data. One other option is to contact a repair shop and see if they can fix the computer, it should not cost more then $100 unless parts are needed. If you do get it fixed, you will have a second system to use.

Answer 4

Some computer manufacturers have a recycling program for old computers. Get software that will write over the whole drive if you plan on donating or scrapping your computer so all the data will be erased. Just formating won't get rid of the data it just deletes the directory. The data is still there.

Answer 5

Take out the hard drive and sell it on ebay. The hard drive is the thing attached to the wiring that looks like tape.

Or go to a computer shop and just give it to them if they take out your hard drive. That might work.
Good luck

Answer 6

your hard contains all the info. You can open your new computer and attach the hard disk to any free connector, if that is difficult for you then purchase a external USB case for the hard disk, that way you will be able to use your old hard disk by inserting it into the case as a external hard disk. It wil be handy as a storage device.

Answer 7

If you dont need the info on it? take out the harddrive and dispose of it separately - ie, take th HD apart. i did that, there was noway anybody could put it back together again. Better to be safe than sorry.

Answer 8

sell it on ebay, if it was just monitor then rest will be ok. How old is it, if it is very old i am sure someone not so well off would appreciate it.

Answer 9

even if u format the HDD there are methods to restore the info (i doubt that anybody is so interested in your info to use these expensive methods)))..).
But.. if u want to escape ANY possibility to restore your information on HDD - destroy it physically, breake it down and dispose to different trash bins located in different regions))) or throw it into the river)))

Answer 10

make it sleep with the fishes