fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2615 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2615 ⌋

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I'm getting rid of my old (old old oooold) PC clone desktop.

First, I wanted to see if I could donate it before I brought it to the county recycling center, but places that take donated computers have minimum system requirements (understandable). I think my computer already fails on RAM and memory (despite having two hard drives) but I'm still curious whether the processor is good enough. The place with what appears to be the lowest standards (and also the most conveniently located for me to drop things off) asks for Pentium III or better or equivalent. Anyone know if an AMD Athlon processor is equivalent to a Pentium III? (Google is so not helping with this. I just get old forum threads discussing which manufacturer's processor is better for gaming vs. regular use.)

Second, any idea how to wipe the hard drives if I can't get the computer to boot from a CD? The instructions I've read say to use the Windows CD to format the hard drive and/or use some downloaded software to completely purge everything. Problem is, these methods involve booting from a disk/CD/flash drive but the computer won't run setup when it starts even though I press the appropriate key (and a bunch of other keys.) I've tried simply putting in the Windows CD and double clicking on Startup.exe but it doesn't give me formatting or partitioning as an option.

At this point, I'm about ready to grab a screwdriver and physically remove the drives and see if I can find a place that will shred them.

Fair warning for anyone offering explanations: I'm no computer whiz. (Although I feel like I used to be better at this sort of thing. I used to know how to use DOS for goodness sake and now I'm like "Bwuh?" at every part of this process. What happened to me?)

First off: RAM and memory are the same thing (at least, when you say 'memory' it's generally understood to mean RAM.) Hard disk space is typically referred to as hard disk space.

Your PC is far, far, FARRR too old to be donating -- there are cell phones more powerful. Your PC is so old that whether an Athlon is equivalent to a PIII (it roughly is, btw) is a moot point -- no place is going to accept a machine that ancient. Take it to a scrap center. If the information on the HDs concerns you, remove them from the case and have them destroyed -- though, given the age of the machine I'm surprised they even still work.

Edited 2014-03-01 22:16 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm surprised it works, too. I hadn't even turned it on in about 2 years until I began the process of preparing to get rid of it.

When I was checking through things to see if there were any files I wanted to keep, I didn't find anything particularly sensitive, but I can't be 100% sure I never had something like a tax form or scan of my driver's license on there for a while before sending it to the Recycling Bin. I'll just remove the hard drives and call it done.

When I read through the minimum requirements for charities, they would say things like "Hard Drive – 40 GB or higher. RAM – 512 MB or higher." and my computer also says it has so many MB of RAM (less than 512), which is quite clearly not the same as the capacity of either hard drive, which both have about 19 GB each.

This, except you can get IDE to USB converters; I have one, but haven't gone through the special hell of pulling the drives in the heaps I have to scrap yet, so can't tell you whether or not they work well; it is one option, though, if you want to salvage anything off the drives you've pulled.

Your local Best Buy and/or computer shop should have a recycling program, best take it to them, instead of the local dump, due to chemicals and metals and other ick you're not supposed to dispose of w/o recycling.

Before you recycle/destroy check to see if there are any parts you can sell. I had a system nearly as old as yours and one of the IT guys at work bought it for $200. He said there are places online where people sell stuff like that and there are always guys building computers who are looking for parts, even if they're really old.

Right off the bat, I'll tell I have no technical knowledge what-so-ever, but it sounds to me like you have got some really sketch porn on your computer.

The sketchiest, gentle Anon, always.

(I'm actually more worried about someone getting a hold of my social security number or some data related to my master's project that I wasn't supposed to publicly share than discovering my collection of downloaded late 00s Doctor Who fanfic and pictures from my cousin's wedding.)</small.

If worse comes to worse, anon, you could always borrow a sledgehammer.

No, I'm not kidding.

Hard drives are sensitive to shocks and sharp impacts. Drop one of those babies on the floor and literally have a whack at it.

Yup. You can even take them apart and bend or break the disks inside themselves. At my old IT job I got to take a hammer to some old hard drives that we didn't want to bother taking the time to zero-fill. Pretty fun.

Does your old PC have a floppy drive? I use Darik's Boot and Nuke (http://www.dban.org/) all the time for our work computers that we're retiring. You can load it onto a floppy, USB or CD. If one of those methods works for you, then the program will load itself and will overwrite your data with blanks.

Alternately, you can remove your hard drives and run them to a computer that does work, and run Boot and Nuke from there; however, if you're feeling not "computer whizzy" enough for that - remove the hard drives and smash with a hammer or drill holes in em. That'll do it.

[ SECRET POST #2615 ]

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