Taking old computers to the municipal tip ...

[TheOstrich]

Apart from removing and keeping the hard drive, is there any other security or safety measure that I need to do?

(We've got at least 4 PCs in the garage now .... )

[Workingman]

Ossie, if you go here http://www.dban.org/ you can download dban to wipe the hard drives of the computers.

Burn it to disc and set your PCs to boot from CD/DVD then follow the prompts - or read this article's dban section http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/pc-co ... ard-drive/

You then have the choice to leave them in or take them out - at least you will know that they are clean.

Apart from making sure there are no discs in other drives there is not much else to do.

I usually stick a label on saying which processor and how much memory they have.... to help the "borrowers" amongst us.

[Rodo]

Why don't you put them on Freecycle? That's what we did with several old computers and screens etc.
There was a young man who collected all sorts of old computers and accessories who was more than glad of them. He came and collected them each time we had a load advertised to go.

[Workingman]

That is a good idea Rodo, so long as the HD is wiped as I mentioned above.

There are plenty of people out there who will make good use of an old computer, maybe to get Gran "tech savvy" or as a trainer for a young child.

[Rodo]

Oh yes of course, as you say WM, make sure it is wiped clean first.

[TheOstrich]

Thanks, both!

[Aggers]

This thread prompts a question from me....

When my old desk-top computer gave up the ghost (old age and a clapped-out monitor)
I dumped it at the local tip, after first taking out the Hard Drive unit, which I still have.
This contains certain item that it would be good it I could access. Is there any reasonable
way I could achieve this?

[Workingman]

Aggers, a powered external HD Drive Caddy, something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/EXTERNAL-DRIVE- ... 2409241-21 is probably the easiest way to go.

Make sure it matches your drive IDE/SATA or eSATA as per the drive info label. Local computer shops or PCW/Maplins should have them.

Once you have extracted the item you want you can use the drive as a backup or as an extra drive.

[Aggers]

Thanks. Frank.

The next time I go into town I will take the HD into Maplins and see what they can offer.

[Aggers]

Frank - I've been to Maplins and bought a Probox HD Enclosure.
No problem at all in assembling and setting up.

My laptop imediately recognised it as "Local Disc (G)" and I have no problem in bringing up various
programme files I had downloaded onto my old desktop'

However, I cannot manage to access the correspondence files, etc that are on the old HD, but when
I try to do so, I am presented only with a list of files from my laptop.

Can you tell me where I'm going wrong ?