What To Do Before Disposing of Computer

[zl55lz]

IMHO, this is all one really needs to do in most cases. A full disk format and then a complete reinstall of Windows will sufficiently "wipe" any personal, sensitive data such that it wouldn't be recoverable by anyone who wasn't very determined and very technically skilled.

Message states that drive cannot be formatted if running windows from that drive. No other drives installed to format/reformat.

Am I missing something? I guess in this instance all that can be done is a clean install?

 

[jim584672]

Message states that drive cannot be formatted if running windows from that drive. No other drives installed to format/reformat.

Am I missing something? I guess in this instance all that can be done is a clean install?

You can't do it in Windows while Windows is the OS you are running. You need to boot into a live environment that isn't Windows. Boot off a USB or CD using something like GParted.

https://gparted.org/livecd.php

GParted Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86 based computers.
It enables you to use all the features of the latest versions of the GParted application.

GParted Live can be installed on CD, USB, PXE server, and Hard Disk then run on an x86 machine.

 

[jollystomper]

One of our sons worked part time for 1-880-Got-Junk for a while. He would bring me laptops that folks were getting rid of that seemed in good shape. in zero cases out of about a dozen had the owner cleaned up their drives - copies of personal "identity theft level" type documents, "intriguing" pictures, etc. were still there. Fortunately I found nothing I had to take to the authorities. Perhaps they thought that the Windows login made that secure, but that is easily defeated by various software packages you can use to boot a system and reset the Administrator password. Or, of course, just removing the drive and putting it in another system.

So yes, *please* at least reinstall the operating system clean, or destroy the hard drive before removing it from your possession

 

[gauss]

All the posts mentioning various methods for physically destroying old hard drives reminds me that Western Digital has a free disk recycling program that can be used by those who don't want to throw their old hard drives in the trash. I've used this service several times in recent years to dispose of old, damaged drives. For the security conscious, WD claims they will destroy and recycle all drives in accordance with various industry/government protocols.

https://www.westerndigital.com/company/programs/easy-recycle

Interesting! Thank you for the link. I have old hard drives going back to the early 1990s in a box.

A couple of questions if I may.

#1) Do you need to pay shipping to get the drives to them or do they cover the shipping?

#2) Do you think that the Recycle Service is currently down? I visited the page put could not link to the recycle process. There was a warning banner at the top of the page suggesting that the service might be down.

-gauss

 

[Sojourner]

#1) Do you need to pay shipping to get the drives to them or do they cover the shipping?

WD covers the shipping, so it's completely free to the end user.

#2) Do you think that the Recycle Service is currently down? I visited the page put could not link to the recycle process. There was a warning banner at the top of the page suggesting that the service might be down.

Looks like it is down at the moment. I'd guess this is a temporary issue, so try again in a day or two maybe? It says "We'll be back soon", so that's a good sign.

 

[mpeirce]

If I had really confidential data, I’m not sure I’d be comfortable shipping my drive off to a third party to erase it for me...

Just encrypt your drives and don’t ever worry.

 

[O2Bfree]

+1!

Rare earth magnets are very strong, fun to play with, and can be used in a variety of ways around the house.

And if you're playing with more than one, watch those finger tips 'cause two of those magnets snapping together can pinch like hell!

 

[Jeb-NY]

You got plenty of good ideas. I seem to collect old drives from upgrades and faults. If it is one still in a computer going to a trust person I just erase and reinstall operating system. I seldom get rid of a usable computer accept to a trusted person. When I get a few drives to disposes of I drill a hole through the drive so the platters are destroy, the same think would work with SSD. A functional older/smaller drive comes in handy so I do keep a few around.

 

[easysurfer]

An old copy of the Windows XP install disc does a good job of wiping an old HDD.

I've had a drive that seemed unreadable (showed zero bytes or full - sorry, I forget which) and used the XP disc to format and then reuse.

 

[MC Rider]

Took HD out, set in bucket of water for a few months.

 

[Montecfo]

I just pull the hard drive, clamp it about halfway into my workshop vise, and whack it a few times with a sturdy hammer. When the case has a pronounced bend in it, I toss it into the garbage.

I do the same.. Sledge, ball peen, claw, furniture hammer... They all work.

 

[sengsational]

For casual personal data removal, if the system is operational, just doing a factory reset is probably enough, but the old files are not "gone-gone"; they are just not in the index. I always figured I could write a file copy loop, and run it until the drive was full, then delete the files: "copy bigfile.mp4 deleteme001.mp4, copy bigfile.mp4 deleteme002.mp4..." then "del deleteme*.mp4".

 

[SecondCor521]

For casual personal data removal, if the system is operational, just doing a factory reset is probably enough, but the old files are not "gone-gone"; they are just not in the index. I always figured I could write a file copy loop, and run it until the drive was full, then delete the files: "copy bigfile.mp4 deleteme001.mp4, copy bigfile.mp4 deleteme002.mp4..." then "del deleteme*.mp4".

You can do that.

For SSDs from most manufacturers, the drives are not actually full when they're "full" due to something called overprovisioning, which helps with both performance and endurance. But with SSDs, doing one full write cycle is probably enough.

There are plenty of free or low-cost drive management tools which will do the actual writing and erasing properly for you. Acronis is a name that I held in good regard when I was working in the area.

 

[imnontrad]

(retired cyber professional here)
Last time I knew, even the skilled engineers at the NSA could not find a way to get all the information on a SSD wiped completely away.
For the "regular" hard disk, the software program BC WIPE will wipe the disk. But do you want to leave the software on the disk for your relative? You will want to "wipe" the empty areas of the disk and the "slack" space of the existing files that you are keeping.
Delete your browser history and cookies too.

BUT what I do with my old HD is that I removed it from my old computer, got an external HD bay and put my old HD in there as my "slave drive" and keep most of my documents/photos there. This way, they are not uploaded to any cloud storage (save on storage fees) and if I ever needed to grab stuff and go, I can just pull that and have my files instead of having to grab the whole computer.

 

[target2019]

Lost count of how many drivess I took apart before sending chassis to recycling, even after wiping with utilities.

Drill a hole in the discs, string together with fishing line, and you can build interesting sun catchers to hang from low branches.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I just pull the hard drive, clamp it about halfway into my workshop vise, and whack it a few times with a sturdy hammer. When the case has a pronounced bend in it, I toss it into the garbage.

I like it!

I'm watching the TV show "Rabbit/Hole". In the show Kiefer Sutherland plays a corporate spy that uses a lot of burner phones (cheap flip phones). When he's done with his burner phone he snaps it in half and puts it in a blender and purees it.

 

[jim584672]

Why are you all not reusing the drive for storage instead of throwing it out? Just get an enclosure or dock. Unless it is so old the interface to it isn't used anymore.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Why are you all not reusing the drive for storage instead of throwing it out? Just get an enclosure or dock. Unless it is so old the interface to it isn't used anymore.

Probably because the hard drive has relatively small capacity compared to what is available nowadays. Also, storage is pretty cheap these days.

 

[MC Rider]

Why are you all not reusing the drive for storage instead of throwing it out? Just get an enclosure or dock. Unless it is so old the interface to it isn't used anymore.

I just plugged it into the box when I went to an SSD for C:, there was room. 700 MB is good enough to keep.

 

[skyking1]

It takes the same juice to spin a small older drive, even more in many cases. I'd rather not spin a few 500 Gb if I can spin a 1 Tb.

 

[statsman]

I'm old enough to remember (and experience!) hard drives failing. Once they reach a certain age, they get replaced. I start thinking about it after three years of constant use. If they begin to have read/write access issues (slow, hanging, etc.) and disk is nowhere near full, I get the data backed up and purchase the replacement. In nearly all cases, I have the data residing on at least one other drive.

 

[target2019]

Why are you all not reusing the drive for storage instead of throwing it out? Just get an enclosure or dock. Unless it is so old the interface to it isn't used anymore.

Part of my consulting business was disposing of old systems. So I had practical experience with this.

There was a period of time when hard drive capacity grew very quickly (in a meaningful way). Users we're looking for more capacity, so an old 80 GB drive was useful for a short while. USB drive carriers weren't really a thing. And the next OS was much larger than the previous.

Then you use that old drive to backup a personal folder But eventually it will fail, and you're back to looking for disposal (or use). Managing a dozen 3.5-inch drives is fun, or is it ?

An interested hobbyist will find a use, for sure. But is it reliable to use four older 80 GB drives, or one, more-modern 320 GB drive?

I admit, it is satisfying to re-purpose old technology, but how many systems and boxes can a person store?

 

[skyking1]

^
When drives were really expensive and I was getting into linux and FreeBsD in particular, I had a file server box with a few drives in it. We are talking 8 Gb and smaller drives.
One day I came home to that really horrible stench of cooked electronics.
The power supply had gone rogue and sent 90 volts through most things. It let the smoke out of every controller chip on every one of those drives.
It was all toasted. My meager napster collection, and my ripped CD's, some photos and videos.
I took it all apart and noticed the NIC card seemed OK so I put it in the next box.
LOL.
About 3 months later that NIC gave it up. I was running the servers headless and had to crawl down there and plug in a monitor and keyboard to see the kernel panic on the screen.