Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
Albany, NY
| Dell Old Computer Recycling
My sister contacted me asking if this was a good option for getting rid of the old computer equipment in her basement. My main concern, of course, is that the data on her hard drives is securely deleted. During a video on the following page, Dell mentions using a 3x overwrite method. Is this secure enough? Would you recycle your computers this way?
Here's the link:
»www.dell.com/content/topics/glob···0&s=corp
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-Jason Levine
Support a children's charity. Buy a calendar and/or a photo book. Shooting For A Cause |
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raul66
| even once is enough, let alone 3x on simple assumption of no return on "useful" data retrieved versus effort to obtain it |
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osumba2001
join:2000-12-11
New Albany, OH
| reply to Jason Levine
How about using DBAN to securely nuke the data:
»www.dban.org/
Or just remove the hard drive before you send them the computer. Then physically destroy the drive. For ideas, search www.youtube.com for "hard drive and termite" |
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altermatt
Premium
join:2004-01-22
White Plains, NY
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Jason Levine
said by Jason Levine  : Is this secure enough? Would you recycle your computers this way? I actually have, but I chose the donate option instead of recycling, and didn't do it through Dell (though I see nothing wrong in doing it through Dell if she wants). I used a secure deletion program from Acronis (I think I'm just more paranoid than raul66 and chose an extremely secure, and long-winded, option from the many they offer, allowing me to include the harddrive without destroying it, which made it much more useful to the charity to whom I donated. And this way I even got a small charitable deduction.
If she truly has no other use for it (we used one old computer as a hardware firewall for a good stretch of time, and another for a toddler who wasn't ready for a "real" one), donating or, if it's too old to donate, recycling, sounds like the responsible thing to do.
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Mele20
Premium
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI
| reply to Jason Levine
I didn't watch the video, but 3x is usually the DoD (Department of Defense) overwrite method. That is the one I used on my Dell 8300 that had to be returned to Dell after one and one-half years. I used Acronis Drive Cleanser and chose the DoD wipe. You could use the wipe utility from your sister's hard drive utilities. I don't know what brand of hard drive she has but most manufactor's have disk utilities that include a wipe utility. I've used Seagate's and it is the same as the DoD one.
I knew Dell had recycle for a long time now but I didn't know they had the Donate. That is really nice and preferred if the computer is not terribly old.
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Grail Knight
Who Dares Wins
Premium
join:2003-05-31
Erie, PA
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Jason Levine
I would just use Dban and be done with it. could wipe the drive them pull it then destroy it or put it in a hard drive enclosure and turn it into a portable backup drive.
I prefer donation over recycling but that will be your choice.
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"Facts not FUD". |
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IGGY
No Guru Just Here To Help
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-30
Chatham, IL
| reply to Jason Levine
I'm sure you may have already come across this recent thread. But just in case - this could give you a little more insight into other opinions on the subject you have asked about.
»Wiping an old hard drive
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osumba2001
join:2000-12-11
New Albany, OH | reply to osumba2001
Edit: that's "THERMITE" instead of termite. |
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