bohemiancoast: (Default)
bohemiancoast ([personal profile] bohemiancoast) wrote2006-06-04 12:15 am

On recycling computers

OK. So, Waltham Forest has a computer recycling project, which is free to donate to, but they charge £10/computer for secure erase. With the result that we're sitting here with a small pile of hard drives, and 3 computers that would all be in working or near working condition were it not for the fact that we've removed the hard drives. I *am* wondering about ringing the recyclers and saying 'it's like this; you can have the computers completely except for the hard drives, or you can have the hard drives as well, provided you secure erase them for nothing'.

So. Is there anyone who would like some bits of old computers? You have only got till noon Sunday to shout, or they're off to recycling, and YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO COLLECT FROM Walthamstow or to be close enough, both in friendship and distance, that we don't mind delivering, which means East London at the outside. The stash includes:

A really very nice 17" Mitsubishi Trinitron monitor, CRT of course; we were using this until last week when we bought a flat screen off [livejournal.com profile] fivemack. This is the one item that will get a stay of execution for a bit longer than tomorrow.

Another CRT monitor; I think probably 14" but it might be 15".

3 PCs of assorted vintages, minus their hard drives. 2 of them have few redeeming features, though they may have some useful parts. The third is a Mesh which notably has an unbelievably good case, enormous, tool free access, but beige of course. None have a DVD writer though I'm pretty sure there's at least one combo drive.

Hard drives, including one that's 120Gb (edit: that one's been grabbed, but there's also ones of 40Gb and 20Gb, and, er, I think 2Gb), but again, not unless you convincingly explain how you'll securely erase them.

Also, Not a Computer: we have replaced our Tefal Crepe Party mini crepe-maker. The old one still works, but the non-stick had begun to lose its non-stickiness making it irritating to use. Unlike all the other kitchen gadgets, we use this one All The Time. Would anyone like the old one?

[identity profile] alexmc.livejournal.com 2006-06-04 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
I can probably help wipe hard drives if you trust me enough and the pile is too big for you to manage. Maybe just install Linux a few times :-)

[identity profile] bohemiancoast.livejournal.com 2006-06-04 09:08 am (UTC)(link)
It's not that large: 4 now, though more if we rooted out the *other* old hard drives we have lying around. We'd want secure erase though; somewhere securer than 'reformat' and less secure than 'this computer was once owned by MI6'.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-06-04 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Fdisk and reformat, which is what I'd do, tends to be pretty final, especially if you then shove a few gigs of data onto the drive.