ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Old Computers?

I've been somewhat of a Computer Geek since the late 1990s. I've got parts and software dating back since Windows 3.1...was the latest and greatest.

Is there any value in these older parts and computers using them thru Windows XP?

Been thinking of disposing them... What do you do towards keeping yourself safe, specifically to the hard drives??

There is a lot of discussion about hard drives. For anything but national security data, simply overwriting them is going to be plenty if you want to donate them. I would just write a little batch file that formats the disk then takes some innocuous file like a movie and replicate it until I got a disk full message but there is a free utility.
https://www.diskwipe.org/
That writes a pattern 3 times and would keep the spies out.
OTOH, these days most old drives are too small to be of much interest in a newer system. Get out your torx driver, take it apart and salvage the magnets, They are very cool. One use is for fishing wires. You can put one of these magnets on a piece of #10 solid and drop a piece of ball chain on your pull line, catch it with the magnet and you are good to go.



I cut the ear off this one (after this picture) and it will fit through a 1/2" KO.

As for the rest of the system, anything older than XP is not very useful on the web although people can use an XP laptop to scan codes on outboard (I am looking for one myself).

If you are not interested in anything but throwing it away and not worrying about your data, bash the drive with a big hammer. Hit it somewhere away from the hub or you won't be doing much. a 380 bullet just bounced off.

Those magnets are strong!!! I have two from old drives.

The rest of the PCs and old laptops went to the county recycle center.

Most of the old software (CDs) went to one of the guys at work who collects old programs. The files that I had backed up on CDs went to the shreader.

As I said, the only valuable thing might be the laptops and only for diagnostic tools for stuff with an OBDII port. There is software that gets you a lot more than the cheap scanners. Most will still run on XP.
The problem for other stuff is XP does not support the new streaming protocols and some web site gadgets. There may be a hack but I never looked.

Greg,

I put 2 Towers (without HDs) and a Monitor out to the curb, they were gone within an hour. I'm just going to scrap old Motherboards & cards I guess.

I've got a small stack of Hard Drives to deal with, originally I thought about drilling some holes, but the hammer sounds easier & I'll see about those magnets.

I do have an XP Laptop that I'll check out tomorrow. I was just using it to run an Inventory spreadsheet when it developed some bad HD sectors and wouldn't start Windows. After some CHKDSK magic I was able to reinstall XP, but I don't use it anymore because it wouldn't connect to my Router right away, so I gave up. (Network settings confuse the heck out of me).

So, anyway. I'll get some details on it tomorrow and if you want it it's yours.

Greg,

It doesn’t show any device errors that I can see, but the battery doesn’t hold much of a charge.

If you’re interested let me know.

I do need an XP laptop. Put it in a box and weigh it. I will email you a prepaid USPS label. You can PM me your address so I can get the label ready

You got it!

Check your PMs

Wouldn't you know it, after I got rid of my old PCs my Desktop PC was DOA yesterday. I ordered a New Direct Replacement PSU online and it came 6am this morning., and IT was DOA!


Luckily I found a local PC shop that was still around and had a compatible used one for $25 so it's back in action.

Note to self: Strip any other PCs before letting them go.

I bought 4 since Ian and got one gifted to me. I was pretty much out of computers for a while,