Donate a computer

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

I have an old computer that I want to donate to Goodwill. How do I get all the data, etc. off the hard drive? It has confidential information on it.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

I have an old computer that I want to donate to Goodwill. How do I get all the data, etc. off the hard drive? It has confidential information on it.

The only way to be sure is to pull the hard driveout of the machine and destroy it! There are recovery programs that can pull data from an empty hard drive or even a hard drive that you reformat.

There is a trick that I recall from years back that you can do in DOS to format & make the data UNRECOVERABLE but I understand that is less then reliable. A better way is to take out the hard drive and find a super powerful magnet and stick the super magnet on the hard drive for some time. A day should scramble things but I do mean a serious magnet.

I would be very worried as identity theft is so common and if you used the computer to do bills or anything of the sort all your information could be on there... Personally, it isn't worth the risk so if goodwill doesn't want it without the hard drive I would just trash it... When I toss a hard drive I take the 3-pound sledge hammer to it to make sure nobody is getting my data.

JMHO

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

QB is right the only sure way of wiping info from a computer is to distroy the hard drive.

But short of that, there are many free utilities which are for wiping info from the hard drives. Here is a link to a web site which has free copies of programs which will wipe data from your computer. Link The US goverment approve wipes are pretty good at deleting data for good.

There are just so many ways for someone to steal your ID, stealing it from a computer you donated to goodwill isn't high on my list of concerns.

Good Luck

[EvelynK72 Member Find all posts View Profile Close EvelynK72]

First, I would call your local Goodwill to see if they accept computers. Our local newspaper just ran an article today about things that Goodwill will and will not accept. Here is that info for our local Goodwill stores:

http://www.goodwill-indy.org/donate/house-guide.asp

and computers are on the list of things they will NOT accept (although I'm almost sure I have seen them there).

Here is some information about wiping out computer hard drive as was posted on the national Goodwill site:

http://www.goodwill.org/page/guest/about/ho***operate/donations/tipsfordonatingacomputer

Good Luck!

Evelyn