Disposing of Old Computers Safely
Why Worry About Data? | Secure Erasure | Recycling Electronics
Options for Disposing of Older Computers
Sooner or later you're going to upgrade your computer and you'll have to decide what to do with the old one.
There are several things you can do with it, including:
- use it elsewhere in your home; or
- donate it to charity; or
- give it to a friend or family member; or
- recycle it.
You should consider all other options before recycling a computer. While recycling is better than contributing to the landfill, the process is not without its pitfalls.
ERA Supports Repurposing Before Recycling
With a focus on recovery, refurbishment and reuse, ERA continuously supplies charitable groups with donated IT equipment while securely managing the retiring IT assets of organizations and individuals across Canada. We believe that reuse before recycling is critical in managing the waste created by computer hardware, and by offering industry leading data destruction for all equipment we receive, we have securely repurposed hundreds of tons of equipment. — The Electronic Recycling Association
Getting Ready
You'll want to ensure that you have a backup of any files you want before proceeding.
Then you'll want to protect your privacy by either
- securely wipe the hard drive(s); or
- reinstall the computer's operating system using the option that wipes the information on the computer and reinstalls the factory settings (the way the computer was when you bought it).
Either of these options will remove all your data.
The second option will remove all programs that didn't come installed from the factory (or were trial editions). You may wish to reinstall these programs after the recovery process finishes if you're not going to be using the program on your new computer.
Why Worry About Your Computer's Data?
It is important that you protect your data and personal information.
While there may be no “top secret” data on your computer, it contains much personal information that could be detrimental, embarrassing or inconvenient if it were recovered.
Many of us consider our data basically worthless. Who'd want it?
Everyone's Collecting Data
But corporations, government, websites and social media sites are collecting all kinds of data. If it is valuable to them, it is important to protect it.
Would You Post EVERYTHING?
Look at it this way: would you print everything out and past it on a public bulletin board for anyone to see?
Of course not. We care to keep our lives private, at least to some degree.
Private Data
You'll want to ensure that the following sorts of data are destroyed before disposing of an old computer or any storage device.
- financial, budget and tax information;
- passwords, accounts information, access codes, etc.;
- personal emails (including unsent messages);
- personal documents;
- personal photos and videos; as well as
- records of bills, payments and outstanding loans.
Secure Erasure
Before disposing of a computer, you'll want to ensure that the hard drive no longer contains personal information.
Preventing Unauthorized Recovery of Your Data
Formatting the drive won't necessarily make the information unrecoverable, especially if you do a quick format. The data that is on the drive has to be overwritten to be truly gone.
- How to securely erase data from your phone or laptop from Ghostery's blog.
Securely Wiping Hard Drives
These are open source software solutions:
- Darik's Boot and Nuke (“DBAN”) is a self-contained boot image (ISO) that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN is appropriate for bulk or emergency data destruction.
- Eraser — Eraser is a secure data removal tool for Windows. It completely removes sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.
- How to securely erase hard drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs).
- Remove sensitive data before you sell an old PC.
- You can securely wipe your files, hard drive or SSD with one of these free utilities.
Other data-erasing products exist, but I like the fact that open source projects can be verified to have no hidden surprises.
Securely Wiping Flash Drives
These devices work differently than hard drives but you can use your computer's operating system to rid them of private information, yet retain the ability for someone else to use it. These methods will securely wipe the drive three times:
- Windows:
format X: /p:3from the Command Prompt where X is the drive letter of the flash drive. - Mac: Open Disk Utility, select Erase then choose “3-pass secure erase” from the Security Options.
Hard Drive Destruction
An alternative to securely erasing your data is to have hard drives, optical media (CDs and DVDs) or removable USB devices shredded or critically damaged. This is more secure but renders the device unusable.
- Secure Electronic Media Destruction is a fee-based service offered by BC's Asset Investment Recovery.
- The Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) is a non-profit organization providing a free hard-drive wiping services plus data removal certificate, hard drive shredding service.
- Physically destroying a drive that cannot be wiped (look down the page for the diagram of a hard drive marked with a red X).