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What do you do with an old computer that's over 6 yrs old?
I don't know anything about the inner workings of a computer but I'm afraid to just throw it out. We do have personal information and pics on the hard drive and I've heard even if I could delete it (which I can't bc I can't it to turn on) people can still get to it. I hate to just throw it out if there's someplace they can use the parts. I'm not trusting of the man who I was taking my computers to be fixed to as I realized the last time I took it in to get a virus removed, I found in my history that he had gone into my hidden pic files, opened private pics and then made a backup copy of them for his own personal viewing pleasure. So I don't have anyone to ask. Thank you.
6 Answers
- TrishLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
If you`re throwing the computer out, remove the hard drive and smash it up with a hammer.
If you want to retrieve your files from it first, buy a usb caddy and put the drive in there, plug into another computer to retrieve what you want, then format it and use as an external drive for storage.
Take out the ram chips, from the casing, you might get something for them on ebay.
If you have a working cd/dvd in there take that out, I bought cables for mine and turned it into an external usb drive to use with my netbook.
EDIT.
When you say it doesn`t turn on, does it not light up at all, or do you mean it won`t boot into Windows?
If it does light up you could try booting from an xp disc to format the drive and reinstall the os.
I have a 6 year old desktop that`s running very well, I upgraded the ram and installed Windows 7.
- stanp6Lv 51 decade ago
There isn't much of value in that old of a computer. You might donate it to charity but first you have to get rid of any data that you don't want anyone to see. If you still have the set up disk that originally came with it you might put it into the CD drive and boot from it. By following the directions you should be able to install a clean version of Windows. All the data should be erased. Then you could donate the computer to the Salvation Army, Goodwill or some other worthy charity. Make sure you back up all the data files to a CD, before you start the re-installation, if you want to keep them.
- gr0undh0gd4yLv 41 decade ago
take out hard drive.
get your self a hard drive caddie(so you can use the hard drive again)
store your music,photos and anything else you want on it.
i have a very old hard drive(10years) that i still use every day to store photos on.
old hard drives can still be used long after the pc/laptop they where in has gone.
also have a 20gb laptop hard drive i still use.
look up hard drive caddies on google
- 1 decade ago
You really need to check this article, it will explain what is going on and how you can deal with personal information.
I hope this helps:
How to safely get rid of your old computer while protecting your data http://bit.ly/9j3Sz3
Source(s): http://pureinfotech.com/ - How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
its probably too slow for todays software, they keep updating it so that old computers will be obsolete so people will have to buy new computers, but if you just use it without the internet to store files like if you are a writer its OK
