Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Webby the Bear on 05 February 2015, 08:10:16

Title: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Webby the Bear on 05 February 2015, 08:10:16: Morning guys,

Got this sitting round in my garage taking up space (picture from Google, not my actual one).....

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=old+time+machine+cpu&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wCTTVKaTL8fg7QbfhoHYBg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#tbm=isch&q=time+pc&imgdii=_&imgrc=wLiOYDoGaWQcuM%253A%3BEerbSuGHcyFZBM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ffarm1.static.flickr.com%252F158%252F398760192_429cbbc4cb_b.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fforums.digitalspy.co.uk%252Fshowthread.php%253Ft%253D1254540%3B1024%3B768

How do I dispose of this without someone getting in to the personal data? I cant get in to ''format'' it cos its so old I have no idea what passwords are or even still have the monitor for it.

Any ideas?:)
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: minifreek on 05 February 2015, 08:33:12: Remove the hard drive and put a hammer through it.... or just take it apart and break the vacuum seal on it, that will instantly destroy it...

The take the PC tower and its gubbins to your local recycling depot, there will be a place for PC's and electricals to be disposed of....
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Varche on 05 February 2015, 09:38:57: Take the hard drive out and then either

Give it away on Gumtree or freecycle. One mans junk another mans treasure.
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: 05omegav6 on 05 February 2015, 11:42:35: Presumably running a welder over the casing would affect future functionality ::)
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: tigers_gonads on 05 February 2015, 11:44:29: Bin the case
Microwave the hard drive :D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: 05omegav6 on 05 February 2015, 11:45:52: Quote from: tigers_gonads on 05 February 2015, 11:44:29
Bin the case
Microwave the hard drive :D
And then weld the microwave back together :D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: tigers_gonads on 05 February 2015, 11:52:56: Quote from: Taxi Al on 05 February 2015, 11:45:52
Quote from: tigers_gonads on 05 February 2015, 11:44:29
Bin the case
Microwave the hard drive :D
And then weld the microwave back together :D

Forgot to say, best use somebody else's microwave as they may be a few tiny sparks while its cooking :-X :D :D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: minifreek on 05 February 2015, 13:51:54: If you do decide to microwave it, please video record it LOL
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: EMD on 05 February 2015, 18:24:12: Burn it :D :D

Or bring it over here and will run over it in the truck ..
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 05 February 2015, 18:49:25: Take the hard drive out and send it to one of our resident IT experts, who will check it and tell us what your taste in porn is! :D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: TheBoy on 05 February 2015, 20:48:46: I have a plasma cutter that could ensure data would be challenging to recover ;D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: TheBoy on 05 February 2015, 20:49:32: But pop the top of disk (to get loads of dust and shit in there), then educated it with a FBH
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Webby the Bear on 05 February 2015, 20:54:18: Haha thanks for the ideas boys. Now you mention it I think I could use it as part of a welding project :-X ;D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: dbug on 06 February 2015, 00:03:44: Quote from: minifreek on 05 February 2015, 08:33:12
Remove the hard drive and put a hammer through it.... or just take it apart and break the vacuum seal on it, that will instantly destroy it...

The take the PC tower and its gubbins to your local recycling depot, there will be a place for PC's and electricals to be disposed of....

As he says - only sure way to prevent data recovery from a hard drive is to physically wreck the internal platters. Just breaking the vac seal wont prevent subsequent data recovery ;)

Rest to local recycling - with no hard drive, no risk of any data recovery issues ;)
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Webby the Bear on 07 February 2015, 12:06:44: Thanks guys. To get to the hard drive is it just a few screws holding the front cover on or should I just butcher the whole thing with the grinder lol
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: 05omegav6 on 07 February 2015, 12:07:43: Quote from: Webby the Bear on 07 February 2015, 12:06:44
Thanks guys. To get to the hard drive is it just a few screws holding the front cover on or should I just butcher the whole thing with the grinder lol
Either or :D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Webby the Bear on 07 February 2015, 12:12:13: Quote from: Taxi Al on 07 February 2015, 12:07:43
Quote from: Webby the Bear on 07 February 2015, 12:06:44
Thanks guys. To get to the hard drive is it just a few screws holding the front cover on or should I just butcher the whole thing with the grinder lol
Either or :D

;D
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: dbug on 07 February 2015, 16:26:33: Quote from: Webby the Bear on 07 February 2015, 12:06:44
Thanks guys. To get to the hard drive is it just a few screws holding the front cover on or should I just butcher the whole thing with the grinder lol

Screws usually at back to remove side covers/rear box section. Pull leads off hard drive - 1 x power, 1 x data, then 4 screws on side of drive holding it to cage. ;) 5 minute max job
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Andy H on 07 February 2015, 16:46:12: The discs/platters in a hard disc drive (HDD) make nice shiny coasters (once you have undone all the little screws)
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: 05omegav6 on 07 February 2015, 17:26:12: You should start a poll and video you carrying out the method with the most votes :y
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: TheBoy on 07 February 2015, 18:09:12: Quote from: Webby the Bear on 07 February 2015, 12:06:44
Thanks guys. To get to the hard drive is it just a few screws holding the front cover on or should I just butcher the whole thing with the grinder lol
Personally, I'd take the drive out and do a proper job. The rest doesn't matter. Wont harm to educate the RAM sticks, but if its been off ages, they are unlikely to hold much
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 07 February 2015, 22:06:36: You could have fun with Sammy Sledge! :y
Title: Re: How can I dispose of old PC / CPU
Post by: tanker12uk on 07 February 2015, 22:29:55: Disassemble PC remove hard drive unscrew the top remove the actual disc's inside you now have some very smart coasters for the coffee table
the rest down the tip into the correct bay or they shout rude words at you well my local guys do
the microwave idea was great do video it please