Not used our old PC for a few years but there are some personal details and files still on there. Going to take it to the council recycle place.
Is it just a case of removing the hard drive?
And then what do you do with the hard drive … dig a big hole, burn it, drop it off the back of a ferry mid channel….? 🙂

put in on the pile in that cupboard.

Angle grinder through the hard drive chap

Remove hard drive, apply 6″ nail/chuck off multi-storey car park.

Then nuke from orbit

I stick mine through the industrial de magnetiser at work

My ploy has always been to smash flat with a lump hammer, until you can hear lots of tinkly bits inside.

Or buy a cheap caddy from e-bay and make into a portable HDD.

Download dban and run it…..

It overwrites the hdd with random stuff. You can select how many times it overwrites…..

Or just remove the drive and smash it up….

Remove HDD and smash with golf club/pick axe (both worked for me in the past)

Reformat the disk with a lump hammer until it makes a rattly noise and you’re good to go.

Throw it in the bin, no one cares about your personal files. Honestly unless you record all your banking passwords in a word document what’s the risk?

Great fun to take it apart.

Yeah, another vote for beating to death with a hammer.

Hammer a screwdriver through the disk platters.

MI6 could probably get 90% of the data off it but I’ll live with that.

It’s November 5th soon.

Got a nice big Record vice? Stick the HDD in the jaws and keep turning, enjoy the point at which it breaks in two.
For added anticipation, do it with the narrow dimension in the jaws.
I have not tried it myself, but it’s something that looks like it could be fun.

Done 2 today claw hammer styleeee. My browsing history is safe.

I got the disc out of my 1st computer & smashed it beyond recognition, just for fun!

My parents put their one in the woodburner

amazingly they got blobs of molten aluminium out…!!!

Some good ideas there 🙂

Software sanitised, with dban etc. Does more than enough.

More than enough, but less than half the fun!

More than enough, but less than half the fun!

Exactly my thinking – indulging in a little wanton destruction just for the hell of it just brings a smile to your face. 😀

Another vote for dBan, the rest just reek of waste and effort.

Another vote for dBan, the rest just reek of waste and effort.

It does seem like a lot of people have stuff they need to work through 😉
Personally I’d rather be riding a bike etc.

Another vote for dBan

Hillary Clinton uses Bit Bleach.

But if you chucking the computer away pull the hard drive apart and save the magnets, useful strong magnets, and damage the discs.

Download dban and run it…..

… is the right answer.

If you want to compensate for your sexual repressions follow one of the more physical options suggested, feel free after you’ve DBANed it.

DBAN is the best, least damaging option. It also means that you could, theoretically, recycle the computer as a working box for someone, which would be nice.

Otherwise, just drill a hole in the top of the platter housing and fill it with expanding foam.

Nail on the head cougar 🙂

That’d probably work too.

Thank you all, I’d been wondering how to get rid of the data on old laptops so they could be recycled to somebody somewhere who might need them.

Would a 16 year old computer be worth keeping working…?
I think not really.