Best way to dispose of laptop?

[Deleted]

Well, due to some mishaps, I have 2 "extra" laptops.....what's the best way to get rid of them? and is there somewhere to sell them for cheap?

one I dropped, and the screen broke, otherwise it works

the other one is a refurbished one I made the mistake to buy based on my brothers recommendation.....that one acts up slightly.....if you leave it alone for a while instead of going to sleep the screen turns black and stays black, the only way to get it back on is to manually turn it off and on (it workedfine at first but after a few weeks this problem occurred and nothing can fix it)...so it works, except you have to manually restart it if you leave it idle for a while (if that makes sense)

1) If i just get rid of them- trash / recycle point- whats the best way to wipe all the bank records and stuff off the memory (I am thinking just to take a hammer to them and be done with them?)

2) Do you think anyone would want them and would I be able to get any money for them? (then also I wonder about the bank & personal info on their as well?)

thoughts?

thx

[wvugurl26]

Pull the hard drive and destroy it. I've got 2 that need destroyed. I don't think anything could be recovered off the one but I'm still destroying it. I had some tech guys tell me to freeze them and drop them onto concrete/asphalt from a couple stories up. Or you can take a hammer to them.

Maybe Best Buy or some place like that would have recommendations for recycling the rest of it. Sometimes cities have electronic recycling places.

I used to have a CIA level wiping program but I wouldn't take my chances. I hardly think it'd be worth the trouble of trying to sell them.

[Gardening Grandma]

In our area, Goodwill has an agreement to take old electronics, so if I need to get rid of something, I just take it there. You could google your county + recycle electronics to see what is available.

[TheOtherMe]

When I got rid of my PC, I took out the hard drive. My ex crushed it to smithereens and then welded it back together. It was a blob. Nobody will get anything off that sucker.

Recycled the rest of it at the local recycling place.

[TD2K]

www.tecca.com/basics/sell-recycle-cellphone-electronics-guide/

[Deleted]

If you take out the hard drive you don't have to do other destruction to it & then could sell it on ebay or donate to goodwill or a senior center.

The one that goes to black sounds like it has "sleeping beauty syndrome". If you go into the power settings & set it so it does not go to sleep when unattended, it should knock it off. If you don't want to deal with it - then same advice as above.

[Deleted]

Why destroy your hard drive physically, it is such a waste.

Use a program like: www.dban.org/ that you can get for free to wipe the hard drive. CSI people would probably have a harder time getting data off a computer after this (especially if you use one of the higher level wipes) than a hammer (all those little pieces can be put back together and read (just like shredders at home).

My last computer got 2 passes of the above program, reloaded the recovery disks and donated to goodwill.

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2012 11:38:25 GMT -5 @rockit said:

If you take out the hard drive you don't have to do other destruction to it & then could sell it on ebay or donate to goodwill or a senior center.

The one that goes to black sounds like it has "sleeping beauty syndrome". If you go into the power settings & set it so it does not go to sleep when unattended, it should knock it off. If you don't want to deal with it - then same advice as above.

on the one that goes to black, I tried the sleep settings already, that didn't work unfortunately

[Deleted]

thank all, now a real dumb question that will show my ignorance- where is the hardrive on the laptop? (I thought it was built inside of the laptop?)

[dannylion]

I have a friend who has a computer building/repair/servicing business who buys dead computers for parts. Or maybe something like Craigslist. When I was working, people said it was really easy to sell old computers on the company bulletin board, but it was a fairly geek-intensive environment, so that might not be the case where you work.

Check with the independent computer-related businesses in your area. They may give you actual money for your dead laptops.

[tskeeter]

Pull hard drive.

Take laptop to Starbucks.

Put laptop on table & open monitor.

Go to washroom.

Take your time.

...

[wvugurl26]

They are inside. Flip it over and get a screwdriver. If the compartments aren't labeled check out the manual to see which panel the hard drive's behind.

[TheOtherMe]

It's underneath. I've changed mine out after it died and replaced it, then loaded the operating system.

[deantrip]

Easy way to disable the harddrive is use a large and powerful magnet to wipe it, then drill 3 holes using a drill through it, simple and quick and easy

[wodehouse]

It seems like a laptop with broken screen should be usable (for someone, or something) with an external monitor. I love docking my little laptop and using the 23" monitor.