Today Friday, June 20, and tomorrow Saturday, June 21, you can recycle your old computers at the Recycling Depot at Rumford Avenue in West Newton. Hours are from 8:00 AM to Noon on both days. Computers and printers are free there is a $12.00 charge for each monitor.
Photo by Keith E. Jacobson©2014
Could some of the more tech oriented bloggers out there explain the best way to prepare an old computer for recycling? How and what to erase, etc? I don’t have any nuclear secrets but I’m concerned there may be bank info or something on the hard drive.
The best thing is to remove the hard drive which should be pretty easy. The second choice is to over write the hard drive with software, available for free, but this is a little more technical. I did both and you should be able to do so too.
Thanks Keith! And then what do I do with the hard drive?
GOOGLE … How to destroy a hard drive.
Terry Malloy — You might considering using the hardrive for a backup drive. You can image your current harddrive onto it (a product called True-Image is perfect for that) such that in the sure event of a harddrive failure, you can get everything back within 20 minutes, including your operating system. If it’s a laptop, just buy a docking station ($25 expense) on Amazon.
But the sure way to ensure a harddrive is not recoverable is to place it on your grill for a few minutes.
Or Terry you can use it as a coaster!
But say, isn’t recycling computers what Tom Sheff does for a living? 😉 Ask him!
Hoss, “But the sure way to ensure a harddrive is not recoverable is to place it on your grill for a few minutes.”
Does that really work?
Read more: Recycle Your Computers ! | Village 14 City of Newton, Massachusetts http://village14.com/newton-ma/2014/06/recycle-your-computers/#ixzz35DcYU2WH
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Terry Malloy — Inside the harddrive is something that looks very much like a record player (a needle and a disc). If you hit the drive with a hammer, the record (the disc) might be still usable. Melting works best.
Staples takes the Monitors, Computers, keyboards, printers for free. No need to pay to have it recycled.
Best Buy does, too.
@Terry – I’ve used a combination of a 1/4″ drill , followed by whacks from a 3lb sledge to shatter the drive platters in the past. Works effectively, and let’s off a little steam, too!
@Terry – Remove the disk drive very carefully. Place it gently at the bottom of a metal trash can. Throw in a few M-80’s. Happy 4th of July!
Terry, for more information on destroying hard drives, contact the IRS.