wiping hard drives

[pellucid]

As I assess which of my possessions I'd rather not move across the country with me, the two old laptops are going on the purge list. (I've been carrying one around for more than 6 years, meep! The other is my beloved Vita the Orange Laptop, and even though we've been through so much together, it really is probably time to say a permanent goodbye,

Comments

[mermaid88]

if you live near a Best Buy, their Geek Squad knows how to do that stuff, or if you want, they can transfer all the information from your old computer's hard drive to your new computer.
:)

[pellucid]

I'm sure it's something I can do myself, though, even if I have to resort to taking the backs off and beating them with a hammer! And I've been using the "new" computer for almost a year, so all the info has already been transferred, of course. I just need to get rid of personal info so that I can toss them.

[beccatoria]

Okay, I'm not really all that clear on this side of things because I generally end up passing my computers on to my mother when they die who then does things like decide to keep them in my grandpa's house for when she visits there and AS YET I have not exhausted this method of laptop recycling, so I've never really had to thoroughly wipe a harddrive

[pellucid]

I wish I had a good way to recycle them like that. But these two probably wouldn't do anyone much good, even if there were someone who wanted them. The old one is nearly 10 years old, has a 10GB hard drive, Windows ME, no DVD drive or CD burner, no wireless card, etc. And it was pretty unstable back in the day and hasn't even been booted up in probably 6 years, so there's no telling whether that will actually work: it may be the hammer for it, anyway. And Vita was running okay, but the screen was really on the fritz. I suppose if I knew someone who wanted to connect her to a new monitor or something--but I sort of doubt that anyone would bother, given how inexpensive new computers are these days. Why bother with a slow, six-year-old machine?

Anyway, I'll perhaps try these suggestions. I don't think I have anything too terribly personal on there, especially if the browsers and related histories could be thoroughly erased.

I've also seen this open-source program recommended in several places, so I might try that, too. Mostly, I think