Disposing of old laptops/drives

[Buddy Bradley]

I have a few ancient laptops and a couple of external HDDs I need to get rid of, but it doesn't feel at all secure to just dump them in the electrical waste at the tip. Since I don't have the cables to actually power them on and manually wipe the drives, what's the best option for disposal?

 

[xenon]

A hammer.

Or if you can be arsed, mount in a caddy and use a secure delete tool that overwrites the sectors over several passes with random data. I used a linux based one, left it running for a few hours. Can't recall name, there are a few.

 

[DotCommunist]

drill them

 

[xenon]

The hammer's more fun but messier TBH.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

drill them

That was what I was thinking was the probable safest option.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Donate them to The Guardian

 

[weltweit]

A previous tower PC I took the HD out and disposed of the rest at the council tip.

A couple of old laptops I kept. Found one in a box recently, it has a really pleasant keyboard and I wondered if I could revive it but there is now no way of loading data onto it or getting data off it.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

You can pay for hardcore proper destruction through shredding, etc - there are a number of companies that offer this I think. We use them at work for smaller data-bearing devices that aren't PCs/servers.

 

[kalmatthew]

I took mine apart and use the platters as coasters

 

[marty21]

I donated mine to a local charity who wipe them and re-use them or use them for parts , etc.

 

[spitfire]

drill them

Yeah, this. Be prepared for the bit to catch on something and the case to turn into a spinning death thing though.

 

[platinumsage]

Unscrew them. The platters make good mirrors or chimes.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I donated mine to a local charity who wipe them and re-use them or use them for parts , etc.

Trouble with that option is that you're relying on someone else wiping your sensitive personal data properly and permanently.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Think your right to be cautious.
...normally take the HDDs apart with a torx driver set, extract the powerful magnets, rub a magnet over each platter, then bend it. No one's going to read that!!

 

[kalmatthew]

Ultimately it depends who you are trying to protect yourself from. If it's some rabdomer chancing it on an old disk or then assuming it's spinning rust then either remove the disk and hit it with a hammer so the platters bend and your good. If you want to sell/donate the laptop then run dban over it and reinstall the os. If it's a solid state drive don't sell it and go for the hammer. You can if your worried about plod/a nation state coming after you in suggest thermite regardless of the disk type....

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Think your right to be cautious.

Yes, and we can all assume marty21's sordid secrets are all over the dark web now.

 

[MickiQ]

When I've disposed of disks in the past, I've always stuck them in the detachable caddy I have and checked that they're working. If they are then it's a few runs of dban and the disk is given away to someone I know who refurbishes kit for good causes.
I trust him and I don't have any sordid secrets to hide (well other than a very large collection of stolen movies and tv shows) but I don't want my potentially confidential data out of my control.
If the disk does not appear to be working then it goes to the garage for an intimate date with a big hammer.

 

[marty21]

Yes, and we can all assume marty21's sordid secrets are all over the dark web now.

None have come back to haunt me yet.

 

[eightball]

I've always managed to remove the hard drives from old PCs & laptops before binning the chassis but I'm struggling with an old Sony Vaio right now. The screws on the back just will not undo - I'm guessing they have a proprietary head pattern. Should I risk just taking this to the recycling centre with the HD in place or is it worth paying a computer repair shop to remove it? The laptop is completely fucked and un-bootable.

 

[spitfire]

Drill it. 8mm HSS bit.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I've always managed to remove the hard drives from old PCs & laptops before binning the chassis but I'm struggling with an old Sony Vaio right now. The screws on the back just will not undo - I'm guessing they have a proprietary head pattern. Should I risk just taking this to the recycling centre with the HD in place or is it worth paying a computer repair shop to remove it? The laptop is completely fucked and un-bootable.

I found replacing the HDD on my old Viao easy - the screws came out easily, so maybe they're just a bit jammed. If you're binning it anyway you don't need to worry about damaging it getting the drive out.

I do need to wipe the old HDD though - it's still sat there from when I removed it.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I have a few ancient laptops and a couple of external HDDs I need to get rid of, but it doesn't feel at all secure to just dump them in the electrical waste at the tip. Since I don't have the cables to actually power them on and manually wipe the drives, what's the best option for disposal?

If they are older it shouldn't be thags hard to remove the drive from the laptop. Stick them in a caddy and use DBAN. Or just encrypt them with Bitlocker.

 

[eightball]

I found replacing the HDD on my old Viao easy - the screws came out easily, so maybe they're just a bit jammed. If you're binning it anyway you don't need to worry about damaging it getting the drive out.

I do need to wipe the old HDD though - it's still sat there from when I removed it.

I can't undo the screws to remove the back cover or any panels on it to even see where the HD is. I'm starting to think about that 2lb lump hammer and masonry chisel in my toolbox cos I'm not bothered about damaging anything...

 

[A380]

Would making up a bucket of very salty water and sticking them in there for a few days do the trick?

 

[Chilli.s]

bury them in the garden

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Launch the laptop into space - it should burn up on reentry.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Or acquire some thermite

No idea if possessing that stuff is legal though

 

[kalmatthew]

Or acquire some thermite

No idea if possessing that stuff is legal though

It's just rust and aluminum filings you can't really ban it