With the new Windows operating system around the corner and an abundance of cheap computers on the market, you may find yourself asking what to do with your old PC and components. We will take a look at how to securely destroy private data on your old hard drive, ideas for repurposing, and how to get rid of them in a way that is friendly to the environment.
Ensure Data Is Destroyed
The biggest concern when getting rid of your old computer is ensuring important and private data doesn’t get into the wrong hands. Simply deleting your files and emptying the Recycle Bin is not enough. Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) is the most popular free utility that will overwrite each sector on your hard drive making data unrecoverable. It is very secure and will deter people that use hard disk forensic analysis from retrieving your data. Burn the ISO image to disk and boot from it to get the main menu. From here you can choose the method you want to use to wipe the disk.
Using the advanced methods takes a considerable amount of time and unless you have government secrets or the KFC secret recipe on the drive, you might want to choose a quicker method. You can get a list of other methods by hitting F3 at the main menu. The quick method will overwrite all sectors with 0’s in one pass and might be the easiest method for home users. However, some with the right equipment could possibly still recover data from this method and is considered the least secure.
Using a degausser to wipe a hard drive clean is aimed at businesses and corporations that need to wipe out several at a time. A degausser magnetically erases all of the information on the disk platters. Buying a degausser is not very practical for home users as they cost around $2,000 and higher. You can pay for services from companies like Garner and SEM that will degauss and destroy your hard drive completely.
Another cheap and effective (and much more fun) method is taking an axe or hammer to the hard drive and smashing it into bits. Of course make sure you wear protective goggles and other protective clothing when smashing it up.
What Happens to E-Waste?
Even with best intentions and bringing your old computers and other electronic devices to recycling centers, it’s shocking how much is dumped in developing nations. Computers and monitors contain toxic levels of mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, and beryllium which are very unfriendly substances to the environment. PBS and 60 Minutes have done stories where they track items from US recycling centers to dumping areas in China and Ghana.
A digital dumping ground in Ghana.
From a 60 minutes story, a dumping ground in China where workers are using a vat of acid to extract gold components.
It is not all gloom and doom when it comes to disposing of old computers and other electronics though. Get to know your local recycling centers and find out how they dispose of toxic e-waste. A great site is from the Basel Network (mentioned in the videos) that have created a list of rigorously tested recycling centers certified as e-stewards.
Alternatives to Recycling
Just because a computer is too obsolete for your needs doesn’t mean it it cannot help someone else. There are several donation programs that will take your legacy computer , get it in working order, and give them to others who need a starter machine to get into the information age. One thing I do is destroy all my data with DBAN and put on a fresh version of Linux or Windows and bring it to a thrift store.
Other Options
Sell it. If your old computer has some value left you might be able to sell it on ebay or craigslist for a bit of spending money. Repurpose it. Figure out a new way to use the old machine. Install a light version of Linux like Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux to breathe new life into it, turn it into a firewall, give it to your child or grandparents for web browsing, simple word processing and games. Keep it around for parts. I do some computer repair on the side from my home and it has been awesome having extra memory, NIC cards, and hard drives laying around. Even having an extra CRT monitor is nice to use in case one of the LCD screens goes bad. Keep it. If your current machine goes down for some reason you will have a spare to hook up while getting it fixed or getting a new one. You can also use it to do geeky things like trying Linux or creating a network.
Conclusion
If you have private data like credit card numbers, security number, heck even your favorite pictures on the hard drive it is extremely important to make sure it is wiped out. If you need to recycle it, make sure it’s with a trustworthy company. Even if you donate or repurpose a computer, ultimately it will need to be disposed of but hopefully with more awareness we can help do it responsibly. Leave us a comment about how you get rid of your old machines.
Links
Download DBAN
Certified E-steward Recycling program
Full PBS Frontline Video About Digital Dumping In Ghana
60 Minutes Video about Toxic E-Waste
