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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: zxcvbob on December 02, 2013, 03:34:18 PM

Title: Discarding old computers
Post by: zxcvbob on December 02, 2013, 03:34:18 PM
I'm cleaning out my computer junk, and the church's old computer junk.  Old enough equipment to be worthless, not old enough to be "antiques".  I'm looking for the cheapest way to properly recycle it.

How about this: 
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Scout26 on December 02, 2013, 03:35:30 PM
I could use a new hard drive for my desktop computer.  The one in it seized up.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: zxcvbob on December 02, 2013, 03:44:49 PM
I could use a new hard drive for my desktop computer.  The one in it seized up.

What interface, IDE? (these are all pretty small by today's standards, the PC's are at least 10 years old; some are pushing 20)
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 02, 2013, 03:47:08 PM
BB wants you to pay them to haul it off?  Nuh-uh!  Look for an electronics recycler near you.  At the very least they will take it for free.  Some recycling centers will also take electronics now.

Brad
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Gewehr98 on December 02, 2013, 03:51:35 PM
I've got a few IDE drives sitting in the computer parts pile here, Scout.

Let me know what you need...
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: bedlamite on December 02, 2013, 03:53:26 PM
Wipe hard drives, ad on craigslist for free computer stuff; must pick up and take all.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Balog on December 02, 2013, 03:54:34 PM
I'd pull and physically destroy the hard drives, other than that what bedlamite said. Also, some recyclers pay for old computers for scrap, I know Pacific Iron in Seattle does. Not sure about CRT monitors.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: BobR on December 02, 2013, 04:37:54 PM
I pull the hard drive out of mine and take the rest to Goodwill. Here, they are the electronic recycler of choice. I have one sitting now awaiting its fate at goodwill.

bob
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: K Frame on December 02, 2013, 04:38:36 PM
I usually wipe my old hard drives with a .357
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: bedlamite on December 02, 2013, 04:45:50 PM
I usually wipe my old hard drives with a .357

"Sorry, don't have any spare hard drives, they're all shot"
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: roo_ster on December 02, 2013, 04:48:46 PM
Freecycle FTW, after a session with a linux live CD to wipe the HD.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on December 02, 2013, 04:50:24 PM
Shatter the platter.  I favor rifle rounds for this.

Drop the rest at Goodwill.  
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Hawkmoon on December 02, 2013, 05:10:20 PM
Do they still work? I recycle old computers by wiping the hard drive, reinstalling the operating system, loading up a version of Star Office (or whatever the newest variant is of that) and donating it through my church to a family that can't afford to buy a computer.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Tallpine on December 02, 2013, 05:18:57 PM
After a year or two of sitting, my old tower refused to boot.  Says it has no hard drives  ;/

Not worth trying to figure out.  I was keeping all these old towers for parts but now I'm using laptops.

I need a crusher  >:D
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: MechAg94 on December 02, 2013, 05:50:27 PM
The local Best Buy here will take up to 3 tube TV's per day per person for free.  Not sure about old computer monitors or computers.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: vaskidmark on December 02, 2013, 05:51:59 PM
Goodwill around here takes old computers.  Not to resell, but to recover precious metals - individually there is not enough scrap precious metal to make it worth kicking off a cliff but in bulk there is enough money to make it worthwhile for Goodwill, the smelter, and whoever else is in the chain.

Besides, Goodwill disposes of the parts that are not sent for recovery.  There is some money in that as well.

Get a receipt.  Use it to offset the Obamacare ACA tax.

stay safe.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Perd Hapley on December 02, 2013, 06:01:32 PM
I don't understand all the hard drive murder, when a lot of people could still use an 80 or 40-gig hard drive. Wiping a hard drive with free software (like Boot and Nuke) is ridiculously easy. Is the risk of someone getting your hard drive, and somehow recreating sensitive personal data really all that great?
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: TechMan on December 02, 2013, 06:03:22 PM
Staples will take up to six items a day per person free of charge.  Here is their page:  http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/easy-on-the-planet/recycling-and-eco-services.html (http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/easy-on-the-planet/recycling-and-eco-services.html)
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: zxcvbob on December 02, 2013, 06:12:22 PM
Staples will take up to six items a day per person free of charge.  Here is their page:  http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/easy-on-the-planet/recycling-and-eco-services.html (http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/easy-on-the-planet/recycling-and-eco-services.html)

Thank you!  That will save me some work and a little money.  I'll just pull the peripherals out, and haul all the carcasses to Staples.  Might take 2 trips.  That's even easier than sneaking the motherboards and stuff into my company's technology-waste bins.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: TechMan on December 02, 2013, 07:24:59 PM
Thank you!  That will save me some work and a little money.  I'll just pull the peripherals out, and haul all the carcasses to Staples.  Might take 2 trips.  That's even easier than sneaking the motherboards and stuff into my company's technology-waste bins.

So easy the easy button would hit itself.  I have gotten rid of all of my company's e-waste this way.  A word of advice, familiarize yourself with the Staples e-waste website, because some of the associates are not familiar with the program.  I just go in get a cart, go out to my car and load up and then bring it in.  I have had some try to tell me they only took 5 items, when I said your website says 6 items, they would go "Okay" and take the 6 items.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: HankB on December 02, 2013, 07:43:27 PM
I pull the hard drive out of mine and take the rest to Goodwill. Here, they are the electronic recycler of choice . . .
Same here.

A couple of years ago I took an old TV to BB for recycling & disposal . . . IIRC, they charged me a nominal fee, but they gave me a BB gift card equivalent to that fee. So as long as I was going to buy something there anyway, it worked out OK.

To expand on the recycling theme, small items (CFL bulbs?) I would mail to the nearest politician who voted to mandate recycling. Preferably with postage due.  >:D
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Gewehr98 on December 02, 2013, 07:52:25 PM
Quote
Goodwill around here takes old computers.  Not to resell, but to recover precious metals - individually there is not enough scrap precious metal to make it worth kicking off a cliff but in bulk there is enough money to make it worthwhile for Goodwill, the smelter, and whoever else is in the chain.

Yes and no to the above.

If it's not worth selling, they'll scrap it for the gold.  They cherry-pick what comes in the door.

Otherwise, it ends up on Goodwill's online auction site. (Where I buy my Nikon lenses, etc.)

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/auctions/Dell-Dimension-521-1BG-Ram-Desktop-WWindows-7-In-14878740.html
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Scout26 on December 02, 2013, 08:06:47 PM
What interface, IDE? (these are all pretty small by today's standards, the PC's are at least 10 years old; some are pushing 20)

Acer Aspire.  It was running Win XP, IIRC.  I'd like to set it up so Robert can use for homework.  I'll see what I find when I dissect it tomorrow.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: never_retreat on December 02, 2013, 10:14:39 PM
Dumpster at work.
Not worth scrap unless you have a ton.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Scout26 on December 03, 2013, 04:55:05 PM
Wow, there's a lot of dust !!!

Anywho. 

Western Digital WD1600. 
WD Caviar SE Serial ATA Harddrive
Drive parameters LBA 312581808 *  160.0GB.
MDL: WD1600JS-22MHB0
Date: 17 Oct 2005
DCM: DSBHNTJAH

Warning use either a SATA Power or Legacy Power connector.  Do not use both which may result in damage to the hard drive.   (It used the serial data connector and the legacy power connector.)
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: zxcvbob on December 03, 2013, 05:12:52 PM
Wow, there's a lot of dust !!!

Anywho.  

Western Digital WD1600.  
WD Caviar SE Serial ATA Harddrive
Drive parameters LBA 312581808 *  160.0GB.
MDL: WD1600JS-22MHB0
Date: 17 Oct 2005
DCM: DSBHNTJAH

Warning use either a SATA Power or Legacy Power connector.  Do not use both which may result in damage to the hard drive.   (It used the serial data connector and the legacy power connector.)

I don't have any spare drives like that, mine are all IDE.  :(  The good news is you can buy SATA refurbs really cheap, and you can use either a 3.5" or a 2.5" drive (with a $2 Molex-to-SATA adapter cable.)  

You may have trouble installing XP unless your install CD has the SATA driver  merged in, and you can only load additional drivers during install using the diskette drive.  There's a BIOS setting to switch the SATA controller to IDE legacy mode, but if you turn that on you have to leave it on (I don't know what you give up by doing that)  If your system has a working diskette drive, all this is not a big problem.  If you need a Win XP Pro install CD with SATA drivers, let me know and I can burn you one.  It probably won't have all the other drivers you need for your motherboard, but you should be able to download the other drivers from Acer and install them later.  If you need XP Home, I don't have media for that and your license key wont work with XP Pro.

Or you can just put Linux on without all the fuss and drama of a scratch install of Windows (but then you'll have Linux instead of Windows)
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Scout26 on December 04, 2013, 01:47:29 PM
Bob,

Yes, If you could send me the XP Pro CD, I would be very grateful, let me know how much to ship and I'll send you the cash.  I'll PM you my address.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: zxcvbob on December 04, 2013, 11:29:21 PM
I found a couple of old IDE hard drives: a 2GB (Maxtor 72004AP), and a whopping 20.5GB Quantum "Fireball Plus AS".  They were high-end drives in their day.  The maxtor is dated 4/05/1996.

Also pulled a 5.25" FDD out of the system I'm gonna scrap tomorrow; I didn't have the heart to throw it away (yet.)  I'm not keeping the 20 y.o. CD drive tho'.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Scout26 on December 05, 2013, 12:41:48 AM
I found a couple of old IDE hard drives: a 2GB (Maxtor 72004AP), and a whopping 20.5GB Quantum "Fireball Plus AS".  They were high-end drives in their day.  The maxtor is dated 4/05/1996.

Also pulled a 5.25" FDD out of the system I'm gonna scrap tomorrow; I didn't have the heart to throw it away (yet.)  I'm not keeping the 20 y.o. CD drive tho'.
I've still got  two flip-top cases of 5.25" disks.  Need a Korean bootleg copy of FoxPro? (That I bought in Germany!)  I'd have to go see what else I have.   I'm sure I have copies of dBaseIII and dBaseIII+. 

I'll take whatever, he'll be using it for homework, so some nice slow, old drives will be perfect to keep him from playing games on it.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: zxcvbob on December 05, 2013, 01:09:56 AM
These aren't slow.  One is just too small to install Windows XP on, and the other is marginally too small (Windows should fit, but no room for anything else once you get all the security updates installed.)

See what G98 has with regards to HDD's (you can use a 3.5" IDE drive, or a 2.5 or 3.5" SATA drive), although I'm still digging thru my pile of stuff.  I did find the XP Pro install disk, so I can make a copy for you.  I'll get that in the mail in a few days.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: bedlamite on December 05, 2013, 02:14:57 AM
I'll have to check in the morning, but I might still have a 2.5" sata from my old laptop. Either 80 or 120 gb, I don't remember which.

Update: Found my old Hitachi 120gb drive, plugged it in and ran the self test. Bad news, it hung up right after it found bad sectors.

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l342/1k_wayne/Screenshot-3.png (http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l342/1k_wayne/Screenshot-3.png)
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Ben on December 05, 2013, 10:22:20 PM
Did you guys figure out the hard drive thing? If not, I went through my old HD pile and found a Western Dig Barracuda. 80GB, 7200rpm. Just formatted and tested it and it looks good, so it's up for grabs if you still need one Scout.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Gewehr98 on December 05, 2013, 10:22:46 PM
That's about the size of the one I have set aside for Scout, too.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Scout26 on December 05, 2013, 10:33:08 PM
Hmmmm, first one to the Post Office *wins*.


 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Ben on December 05, 2013, 10:36:04 PM
Hmmmm, first one to the Post Office *wins*.


 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Do you need SATA or IDE? Mines a SATA.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Scout26 on December 05, 2013, 10:38:37 PM
Either/or.  The motherboard has slots/cables for both.
Title: Re: Discarding old computers
Post by: Ben on December 05, 2013, 10:55:20 PM
Either/or.  The motherboard has slots/cables for both.

I might have a bigger IDE that's useable if you want more capacity. I'll have a look. Either way, PM me an address and I'll send ya something.