Wipeing an old PC

[Currie]

Hello Tracey,

If it was mine I would keep the old computer as a spare in case something went wrong with the new one leaving me computerless. They don’t take up much space. You don’t need to keep the monitor if it’s a bulky CRT, or even the keyboard. The mouse may come in handy if you have a cat in the house that likes chewing mouse tails.

Are both old and new computers desktop machines? Is the old hard drive full or anywhere near so? You could always install the old hard drive in the new machine as a back-up drive. You could run a back-up program every week or so that would ensure that you have a second up-to-date copy of your data on the machine. This could be a supplement to any other backup procedure you use such as to an external drive.

If you really want to get rid of all the hardware, you don’t want to install the old hard drive in the new computer, and you’re not completely confident about the reformat or overwrite options, why not just keep the thing. The hard drive itself is only a very small box and takes up no space at all. It contains years of your data right up to a couple of months ago. Why destroy it? Stick it in a static free bag in a small cardboard box at the back of a drawer somewhere. You never know when it may come in handy.

Any charity dealing with computers probably get all sorts of non-operating systems and assemble the good bits into working computers. They are very likely to install an up to date Linux operating system, such as Ubuntu, rather than have to deal with the broken down wrecks of the different versions of Windows that are on the computers they receive. Windows is expensive, Linux is free, you can’t install a single copy of Windows on multiple machines but with Linux the sky’s the limit. In other words don’t be too worried about giving them a hard drive deficient computer.

Removing a hard drive is pretty easy. There should be instructions in the paperwork that came with your computer or see this and other videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lVnFlFrqhE You may need to only remove screws from one side and the cardboard box is a mailing one and is not required to be as fancy as that for storage.

Hope that helps,
Alan

[LesleyB]

Hi Alan

Is the old hard drive full or anywhere near so? You could always install the old hard drive in the new machine as a back-up drive.

If I remember correctly, Tracey's new computer is a Mac, old one is a PC - not sure that would work.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Tracey]

Yes, my new one is a Mac laptop and the old one is a desktop pc. I did buy an iomega external hardrive for this as a back up but this one is configured to work only with Mac. I will get one that works with both as i feel better having more than one back up.

Alan i decided to get rid of the old one because it runs so slow and needs an overhaul. I did think of keeping it as a back up but i am seriously thinking about getting a new desktop as i am still not comfortable with a laptop as a main computer, i am not on it half as much as i used to be.

Now i am confused. I think it may be the hard drive in static bag option and the rest can go the to pc afterworld with Andrew's.
Keyboard and mouse are on offer on the local freecycle or freegle site as we speak waiting for someone to collect them !

Thank you to you all for your suggestions,
Tracey

[Currie]

Back again Tracey,

I forgot all about your new Mac. There’s always the old “old hard drive in an external case” trick. Although that one requires its own power supply and is nowhere near as convenient or as portable as the small USB powered external hard drives, and probably wouldn’t suit a laptop user. I have one and keep recycling my old desktop drives through it.

The problem with sick Windows PC’s is usually Windows and not the hardware. You could keep the old PC and replace Windows with a flavour of Linux, such as Ubuntu. You would be amazed at the difference it makes to a sick old Windows PC. It’s a great option to bring an older PC back to life especially when you cannot reinstall Windows and the alternative is the scrapheap. http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

All the best,
Alan

[Tracey]

Thank you all for your responses and have now decided not to rush into getting rid of it. Instead i will look at ubuntu and the possibility of a pc with a new lease of life !
Will let you know how i got on but will keep this as something to do after Christmas when everything goes quiet.

Tracey

[annpa]

Can one use windows applications with ubuntu? i'm thinking about Office and my FH program Generations family tree.
cheers
annpa

[Russell]

Hi Annpa

I don't know about your FH Generations programme but Ubuntu and the other Linux variants have a free programme called Open Office which works in exactly the same way as Office and is capable of savings /reading files in a variety of other formats so you can send a file to a friend saved as a Word file which they will be able to read. It has spreadsheets too which match Excel for quality.

There is a Linux compatible family history programme called 'Gramps' which will generate and accept GEDCOM files from other programmes. I think that is the only Linux based family history version.
I use Family Tree maker on my Windows based laptop and save my backups to my Ubuntu based PC with no problems. I'm not keen on the Gramps format myself but would probably get used to it if I had to

You can run Linux and Windows on the same machine. that would let you try it out.

Russell

[sheilajim]

Hi Tracy,

I was reading this thread with great interest because the new computer that my husband got me for my birthday arrived today. =D> Allthough I won't hitch it up until Monday, I also have been wondering how to wipe the disk clean. I will delete mostly every thing on the disk but do not want any nosy or dangerous people going through my stuff.

Which method did you use? Did you keep the old disk in a drawer or did you do something else with it?

[Tracey]

Hi Sheila

I held on until this Monday but in the end i removed the hard drives from pc and laptop and the pc repair man took the pc for spares as he repairs the pc for a hospice and the laptop i took to a well known pc store who will recycle old pc,s rather than send to a landfill site or the dump (the only reason the repair man didnt take the laptop is because i obliterated it trying to find the hard drive which i finally found resting at the side of the laptop and came out with a gentle tap ). He did say that he could have wiped the computers clean for me. He and the man in the pc shop didnt think it was worth me doing anything to keep them going as they were both so old. And my main reason for getting a laptop was to save space and although i am thinking of getting a new desktop in the future they are no more than a screen now so..........

Hope you like your new computer !

[sheilajim]

Hi Tracey,

Thanks for getting back to me. Like you, I also want to recycle my old computer instread of it landing up in some landfill. It is 6 years old and still working. I think that I will try the KillDisk that Hilbee recommended.

I hope that you are enjoying your new Apple Computer. I would have loved to get an Apple PC, but for what I wanted they would have been too expensive. I chose a Dell PC instead, and managed to keep it just under $1000.00, 3 dollars under. I always like to save my husband money. (He bought it for me for my birthday) I will get myself a new moniter after Xmas.

I will hookup my new computer tomorrow and delete everything on my old computer today. The reason that I chose a Monday to hook it up is to make certain that everybody is back to work and will give me the drivers that I will need for the many programs and hardware that I will be hooking up.

Happy computing to you.