Mon, 28 May 2012
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Jay Dougherty offers tips on how to reuse, recycle and resell before you dispose of your old computer.
Reuse the old PC
First, figure out whether you really need to get rid of your old computer. Old machines can be great for dedicated tasks, such as backing up newer machines. The Windows Home Server operating system, which at its core is designed as a complete backup system, runs well on older technology.
Windows Home Server is available in an OEM version from popular online retailers such as Amazon.com for USD 149 (EUR 102). Install it on an old computer, and you can kiss your backup worries good-bye - for less than the cost of a decent external hard drive.
If you have enough hard drive space in the old computer, you can even use Windows Home Server to store multimedia files so that everyone in your household can access them.
Even if your old computer is damaged, you will be surprised to find that you can still get a fair amount of money for it. Damaged notebooks, especially, are frequently bought and sold on eBay. Those who buy them are generally parts dealers who intend to fix them up and resell them or break them down into individual parts and sell those for a profit.
Salvage parts
Another option is to open up your old computer and salvage parts that could still be of use. Although you're unlikely to be able to use all of the parts of an old PC - the motherboard and video cards, for instance, may be outdated or unusable - some components can be re-used with relative ease.
The internal hard drive of your old PC can be inserted into an external hard drive case - available at most online retailers for around USD 10 - and turned into an external storage device, suitable for backing up or archiving files.
The memory (RAM) modules of the old PC may be used in the new PC, assuming both computers take the same kind of memory. And the optical drive - CD or DVD reader or writer - can be used as a second drive in a new computer. The rest of the parts you might be able to sell on the second-hand market on eBay.
Donate your PC
Consider giving the computer away. What's old technology to you might be perfectly usable to someone else.
If there's no one in your family who might benefit from your old computer, consider donating it to a local school, library, or other organisation. Also, there are a number of organisations around the world that specialise in finding good homes for old computers. A quick Google search for donating computers in your area should turn up some options. Keep in mind, too, that some PC makers now provide a free recycling service for their customers. Dell will recycle your existing computer if you purchase a new one from the company. The old computer does not have to be from Dell, either.
Take precautions
Regardless of how you dispose of your old computer, though, be sure to completely erase the hard drive before passing it on. That includes deleting any personal information as well as licensed software. Once your computer is out of your hands, you just won't know where it might end up, and there are plenty of folks out there who know how to recover even deleted data from a hard drive.
The best way to securely erase all of the information on a hard drive is to use a tool designed for the job. The free Eraser tool (http://www.heidi.ie/node/6), from Heidi Software, overwrites all data multiple times using a special algorithm.
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