I've been havin a bit of a sort out and got a few old pcs to get rid off. 2 desktops and 3 laptops. What's the best way to get rid of the memory. Is there something I can run on them or will the more fun way be better take the hard drives and ram memory out and beat the crap out of it with a hammer do. I was going to take them to the dump.
Rusty, you can resell the ram as it's volatile memory. When it has no power the memory is cleared so no data will be stored. Hard drives can be wiped and sold. Have you considered donating them? The company you donate to will format and reinstall software and allow people who would not normally be able to get a computer to use one. If you have one of the hard drives from the laptops spare and it's IDE (row of pins on the back) I could take it off your hands
If you're taking it to the dump, the living out of the hard drives with a hammer. Very satisfying and the only sure way of knowing some scrote isn't going to try and recover what's on there.
I dumped a load of old pcs when we moved. I removed the hard drives and drilled through the main memory chips before smashing them and buring them. When I look the laptop to the tip - the guy who worked there said 'dont throw that in the skip = i will do it later' so he basically took it home. But I walked off with a smile in the knowledge it would not work!
I recommend to clients (I work in IT security) that you can take the hard drive out and donate/sell the rest (though any network cards and or modems need to come out to). Hard drive data only becomes destroyed when its overwritten - erasing it does not delete all of it, merely the address structure where it sits. If you have time, you can save a whole load of rubbish onto it and overwrite it - but for the cost of a replacement, we tend to hit the spindle hard with a hammer and then whack a scredriver through one of the vent holes and bend/smash the disk. You can also shred the drive. Memory strips - as mentioned above - don't hold info when not powered up.
Cheers for that, I've taken the memory out of the 2 pcs, they were so old 10 + yrs I've scrapped them, will deal with the memory later . Kenzie the lap top memory didn't have pins in it's a SATA one but hot another 2 old laptops so will have a look when I dig them out. They have been sat in the roof doin nought for years, it's one of those things we don't like to bin for some reason. Now wheres me sledge hammer. I feel a science experiment cummin on.
