Hubbub

Computers, like all other electronic devices, have finite life spans. What begins as a powerful, bleeding edge, technological wonder eventually outlives its usefulness. In just a few years, new applications come along that require more memory, more storage, faster processors, better quality media cards…. The computer becomes antiquated.

But the machine still works and you just can’t bear to throw away something that works. So down in the basement it goes because surely a use for it will come along and someday you’ll be glad you kept that old computer. The cycle repeats itself several times and one day you realize your basement contains more computer equipment than the space shuttle–all of it so outdated even Goodwill won’t accept it. What to do?

Try donating the equipment to an organization like Renew that salvages computers. These groups reuse components to build new computers, often to be sold inexpensively to other deserving organizations. Be sure to choose an organization that disposes of unusable parts in an environmentally responsible fashion even if a fee is charged. Computers contain highly toxic parts and sending them to a landfill invites serious longterm environmental damage. Perhaps more laws are needed to mandate environmentally sustainable reclamation of computers and indeed all consumables with toxic parts.

However, before donating (or selling or giving away) any computer, you should always make sure you have left no personal data on the machine’s hard drive. Permanently eradicating data on a hard drive turns out to be less trivial than you might think. Deleting files does not actually remove them from the hard drive; it only removes the entry in the hard drive’s internal catalog. The actual file containing your information remains. Most 14 year olds know how to recover and view this data. Do you really want a random person inspecting your old Quicken financial files, personal letters, and photos?

The safe way to prepare a computer to change hands is to permanently remove your personal data and indeed all data. This can be done easily using a free tool that overwrites every bit on the drive. The free tool is called Active KillDisk. It does the job very well and is relatively easy to use. The download and instructions for use are here:

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

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Electronics Reclamation Drive

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