Hi Everyone! I want to get rid of my old computer, a Compaq,

[joeybee12]

circa 2000...would any place like Goodwill take it? I'm not going to just throw it out. Any other options? Thanks!

[Old and In the Way]

1. I gave my last box away to a local family that couldn't afford one.

The SO found a family while delivering Thanksgiving baskets that needed one for their 3 children. The box and monitor were just taking up space and weren't ever going to get used again, so we just gave it to them. Made us feel good just knowing how much they appreciated the gift.

[joeybee12]

8. That's a good idea...

I wonder if Goodwill takes them...thanks.

[Turbineguy]

2. You might want to consider keeping the keyboard

They are well built. Speaking as somebody who loses his temper and resorts to pounding on the keyboard with all his might.

[joeybee12]

7. That's a good idea...I now have a laptop and already the keys

are sticking...I should keep the keyboard as a back-up.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. I'm servicing up a old win95 box for my neighbors...

...in return for 2doz eggs. With firefox 2, a good defrag and ClamWin AV, it'll be a good box for trolling the webs and playing Doom. It depends on your community: I'd ask around the local foodbank, jobcentre, masons (no, really) or your congressman - my MP (in NZ) had shifted a few old boxes of mine in his time. There's always somebody whose house has burned down and wasn't fully insured...

My neighbors are sticking this one in a kid's bedroom.

[joeybee12]

6. Thanks...makes me wonder if Goodwill might want it...

thanks again.

[NNN0LHI]

4. If you have been using it to pay bills with a credit card or have other personal info on it may ...

... want to remove the Hard Drive before you give it away? I usually open my old HDs up with a screw driver and take them to the local auto repair shop and have the guy there flame the discs with his acetylene torch until they melt. That does it.

Don

[joeybee12]

5. Thanks...I had heard that...

Although someone suggested smashing it!

[hobbit709]

9. Or you could just download a good disk wipe utility and use it.

[pscot]

10. That sounds a tad extreme

Wouldn't laying a strong magnet on the thing effectively scramble it?

[pokerfan]

11. two concerns with this approach

1) You can never be sure that all the data is gone. There could be entire sectors left untouched.
2) It's also possible that you could wind up destroying the hard drive permanently - sensitive electronics

Just download and run DBAN. It conforms to DOD specifications for destroying data and it's open-source so you can be reasonably sure that it isn't doing anything underhanded with your data, even if you don't study the source code, others can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBAN

[pscot]

12. You probably can't reinstall it

after treating it with a welders torch either.

[pokerfan]

13. I thought you were hoping to reuse it

If you just want to permanently destroy it, then I would trust the torch rather than just waving a strong magnet over it.