If you've got an old computer hard drive that's been gathering dust in the closet, don't let it sit there. Find out how to recycle your old hard drive on this page.
How to Destroy a Hard Drive
Find some decent quarters to recycle old computer parts. Be sure that you get the right kind of computer waste, which is usually something other than computer parts, as these putrefaction-resistant materials are perfect for rocket engines, rocket fuel and more. Here’s a good article on the difference between computer parts and computer waste. etc. If you’re trying to figure out how to recycle data, you’re going to have to do a bit of digging to figure out what’s recyclable and what’s not. The two biggest categories are hard drive and CD-ROM drives, which get sorted onto different piles.
Hard drive piles are likely to be harder to recycle because they can usually be identified by their physical characteristics, powers, and their capacity. Looking for distinctive ISOs makes it easier to tell those piles apart. The biggest problem with hard drives is that they have to be recycled in specially designed receptacles. Some receptacles are long, making it difficult to fit them in recycling machines, and some are small, so the recycling rate is terrible. CD-ROMs are typically destroyed in the same way as hard drives, which explains why there‘s so much of them out there. CD-ROMs don‘t have that need for specialized recycling machines, but that didn‘t stop IBM from creating a CD shredder in 1986. The CD- shredder shredded hard drives to make room for CD-ROMs, which meant CD-ROMs were wiped of precious data.
To get rid of as many CD-ROMs as possible, their manufacturer made a billion machines worth of shredded computer parts in 1992. Read more about destruction of CD-ROMs and good ways to recycle them Lastly, some data (called “primitive data” in computer jargon) have little or no value and are considered “waste.” Some examples include: In most cases, if all else fails, don’t throw your unworn personal photos into the trash, put them into a photo album and read them every now and then. Many companies offer photo storage and bandwidth directly for free in digital form or for a small fee in paper form. Or if you’re going to throw out your photos in the trash, you’re better off donating them to a museum or another institution. Your local library, historical society, archives, news outlets, etc. are good places to donate photos. Photo storage sites are also good places to take your old photos. A quick note on websites: Searching the world wide web sometimes comes up with duplicate name/photo searches and brings up tons of trash results, which means you’re likely to get a lot of useless workshelves full of useless papers that your old hard drive is full of.
How to Get Rid of an Old Computer Tower
This is the one you’re probably thinking of. It does technically qualify, but it’s not straightforward to recycle. The Intel processor contains microprocessor instructions that can be recycled. Instructions to describe how are available here. (GigaDevice also has a site with info. You’ll charge a fee but the information is really good.) Following this guide will lead you to a nicely organized trash list for your old Intel processor. One additional point. You may want to contact your local office supply store and find out if the company will accept “neutral” electronics like old printers or metal ribbon tape spools. If they don’t, you can check with office supply stores like Staples. A live person can help you determine if you have what you need. When people mention recycling computers, CPU’s, RAM, etc., most people envision a landfill full of used electronic waste. But there are other solutions. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to sell the old device. Check with your local electronics store if that option is available. If not, we’ve got some ideas for recycling your old stuff on the next page.
How to Prepare a Computer for Disposal
How do I delete all the personal data from my computer? You can use the Windows 10 recovery disk feature to do this. Note that this will likely erase your hard drive of any data on it. To avoid potential data loss, back up any important data now. Storage Space Your hard drive may have approximately 512 megabytes of storage space. You can use that space to back up all your files and upload documents, photos and videos you no longer need. You can also run existing applications or migrate existing files into new folders to free up more space.
To confirm space by amount, use Windows File Explorer. For more help, read How do I learn how much storage my PC has? To resize a hard drive, you can use an external memory card reader. Boot up your PC and insert your memory card into slot 1 (usually marked with a “E” or “S” in it). Check to see which storage option is displayed in the Motherboard Manager. When it’s red, you’re ready to begin. To resize, press the Reset button (usually near Eject or Delete). The following parameters will appear. Resize drive to maximum (in gigabytes): Resize your hard drive to 30 gigabytes. What if I need more space on my drive? You might need more space if you have documents that are more than 8 GB in size. If so, follow these steps to back up the documents and then resize the drive to their full size.
Windows only lets you back up certain types of file, so make sure you back up your video files before you resize the drive to more space. How do I resize my hard drive to more space? Boot your PC into Windows 10 recovery mode. Press the Reset button and when Windows starts, press one of these keys to jump to the storage page: F2, F12, DEL, DEL, or Select option. Navigate to where you want to save your files (it might be named Custom or Saved). Type a file name (the full path of the file will appear on screen). Press the Erase button to stop the process. Step 4 will vary by PC. Check to see if your document is stored in the Documents folder. If the documents are in Documents, right-click on the folder, and select Properties. The Selective List window will appear. Click the Move To button next to the Documents folder and then press Replace to move the documents to their new location. If possible, find files by date and move to the desired location to free up space on your hard drive.