said by Sweet Witch :

Two years ago I was cleaning out my mother's basement and found a pile of ancient power tools - so old they were solid metal with no insulation to not electrocute you.

said by Sweet Witch :

That depends. It they're out on the curb for pick-up, they're public property and anyone can take them (this is how police often get evidence without a search warrant). If they're on the property, it could be theft as well as trespassing.

said by Midak :

So these drives are locked at the firmware level? You can't even format them? I would love to get my hands on software to do the actual locking. Any links?

said by K Patterson :

Items put out for refuse collection may or may not be free for the taking. In our area, some cities are passing and enforcing laws to get rid of trach pikcers.

said by Sweet Witch :

said by carp :

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That's theft once it's in the recycle bin unless the owner has policies in place saying the public can remove it.

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That depends. It they're out on the curb for pick-up, they're public property and anyone can take them (this is how police often get evidence without a search warrant). If they're on the property, it could be theft as well as trespassing.

said by M A R K :

Ok first off to all the clowns me im jerk and doing illegal shit, please step off.

I did not feel i had to explain in detail the true issue but here we go, i work for a non profit that takes old computers and rebuilds what we can gives them to local churches and schools and other people.

We have people sign a release that says we can do what we want with the stuff and we will report any kiddy porn or other stuff like that.

These were give to us as a swap cycle, we do some free work for donated stuff, they told us they were trash. I see they still can work and were just asking if anyone knew how i could bring them back to life

I dont know why all the arm chair legal eagles and snoops have to come out of the wood work. Me just saying there form the trash and asking for help is not good enough? Sorry..

said by M A R K :

Also did ask the people who donated these if they knew of any pass word and they did not. They just told me the were used with some kind of "CNC"??? Machine and that is all i know..