Disposal of a defunct laptop........

[Jen~Ealogy]

What is the best/safest way to dispose of a dead laptop please.
Should I remove the hard drive and smash it up, and will it still be safe (security wise/environmentally wise) to then dispose of the laptop?

[borobabs]

I would Jen take hard drive out and chisel it up or hammer it to death lol;;
thats what I did with mine out of old comp then got buried in massive deep hole in someones garden ;;;

[Jen~Ealogy]

Really Babs.......never thought of that one lol! Don't know if your supposed to put them in your bin......the laptop that is.

[borobabs]

Oh carnt help you with that one but what about your memory card etc ;;;if you can remove everything you need to remove and smash up then I would imagine you could bin it , but I know on freecycle they are always asking for laptops working or not ??

[Genealogy Printers]

Oh carnt help you with that one but what about your memory card etc ;;;if you can remove everything you need to remove and smash up then I would imagine you could bin it , but I know on freecycle they are always asking for laptops working or not ??

I've seen busted laptops go fo 60 or 70 £'s on ebay

[borobabs]

Wow didnt know that Ron , ;;;no wonder they are asking on freecycle for them bet some are selling them on then

[Jen~Ealogy]

That sounds good, might just smash up the hard drive and see if I can sell the laptop then.........you never know lol!
Thanks Ron and Barbara.

[Genealogy Printers]

I had a broken one given to me some weeks ago, I looked on ebay and the very same non working model went for £73 and it's quite an old one, they break them up and sell the parts, £40 for the hard drive, £30-£40 for the screen, £15 for the memory stick and lots of other bits and pieces at a tenner a go, it all adds up. Put the make and model into ebay and see for yourself

[Jen~Ealogy]

I wouldn't risk selling the hard drive Ron, with all the recent reports of disrebutable repair companies hacking into peoples bank accounts and other details recently.

[mariner]

What is the best/safest way to dispose of a dead laptop please.
Should I remove the hard drive and smash it up, and will it still be safe (security wise/environmentally wise) to then dispose of the laptop?

Most councils have a civic amenity for small electrical items such as laptops etc..
Mariner

[Genealogy Printers]

There's free software available on the net to make sure that all data is erased properly so it can't be recovered.

[dave pusey]

We disposed of some old ones a while back. Remove the hard drive and attack it will a drill, or screwdriver or something. Any kind of big hole in the middle will wreck it.

The rest of it can just be taken to your local recycling/landfill site, and they'll do the rest for you.

[Mary M]

You could remove the hard drive & buy a caddy to fit it into and have it as a portable hard drive for back ups. You can buy a caddy quite cheaply if you shop around, they come in two sizes, 2 ½" or 3½". ( 2½ is the usual size in a laptop) It comes with a USB cable and you just plug it in there is no need for any extra software it will just show up as another drive.

Mary M

[Jen~Ealogy]

Thanks Mariner, I was considering contacting the council for disposal purposes but might just see if there is some money to be made on it yet.

The only problem with your suggestion Ron re the hard drive. The laptop is totally dead. It will not work at all. Unless I can remove the hard drive and perform this function via another laptop.........? Which is really something I didn't want to have to do.

The caddy sounds interesting Mary, hadn't thought of that.

And I will be destroying the hard drive Dave. Thanks.

[Jen~Ealogy]

Does anyone know how much a caddy would cost please and also, is it possible to transfer information from one hard drive to another via this method, and if so, how would you do this?

[Mary M]

Hi Jen~Ealogy,

They are available in computer shops, I paid £6 for mine from a small shop in Trench Telford called Daw Computers, Daw Computers....Big Enough to Cope...Small Enough to Care I don't know if they do postage. I fitted a hard drive from an old laptop, connected it to my new laptop and formatted it, I can now plug it in and copy & paste or drag files to it. They are called Enclosures in pc world. I use mine to transfer files between my laptop & desk top.
Hope that helps
Mary M

[Jen~Ealogy]

Thankyou Mary for replying so quickly, will look into it.

[Genealogy Printers]

Loads of cheap ones on ebay

[dave pusey]

This should do the trick... Sumvision USB 2.0 2.5" Aluminium Silver Caddy for upto 320GB IDE Drives - Ebuyer

[Jen~Ealogy]

Thanks for that Dave, my DIL is going to keep the hard drive to transfer stuff from her old laptop.