To feel stressed by all the old laptops

[Designless]

Where do you dispose of yours? I know they say just wipe the hard drive and give to a recycling place but ours tend to die before we replace so we can't do that and now I have a tonne of dusty laptops I'm scared to give away in case someone steals our identities.

That is useful advice.

But realistically I will never do all that.

Hammer it is.

Same!

We have a local charity that take them.

I generally look at youtube with the model number to see how to remove the hard drive and then bash it with a hammer and put in bin.

I’m pretty safety conscious (shred everything with my address on it), but what’s on your laptop that is that compromising? Do they work enough (even with an external monitor) to format the hard drive? I’d just do that and then take to a recycler, like Curry’s. Or if I couldn’t format/knew there was private data on there, I’d remove the hard drive watching a YouTube tutorial, drill through the hard drive and then also take that to the recycling place.

The only time my data has been stolen was when a company didn’t update its address for me when I moved and the new tenants received a letter for me.

As above.
This is exactly what my local professional computer expert told me to do.
I can then recycle the parts in my recycling green bin because local authority will, accept “small electricals” .
Otherwise I’d take the components to my local tip.

I took some old laptops/tablets the kids had to PC World/Currys. They recycle them for you and give you a voucher for money off new tech.

Need to take hard drives out - they do it all. I guess you could go down a spiral that someone in the chain could retrieve the data while “recycling” but honestly, I think the risk is very low and criminals have no need to steal data in such an analog and difficult and clunky way now!

Please don’t “bin” them - full of rare metals etc that we should be recycling.

DH has drilled through a lap top before because it was dead and he couldn't see a way to remove the hard drive. Presumably that did the job!

One of my favourite parts of my part time job at Halfords was chucking car stereos off the loading dock when they'd been returned but couldn't be sold again, they had to be trashed so.no one would nick them

My last few workplaces have done secure electronics recycling and let you include personal items in that. I’ve just got rid of a couple of old laptops via work. It might be worth asking your IT dept if they offer that.

Solidaritech wipe and reuse old tech. I've sent several phones and tablets to them no problem.

Don't put them in landfill, ffs. There are still components in old laptops that can be used and recycled.

If the machine boots, wipe the hard drive securely. Assuming they are Windows machines, use the windows restore functionality and then use SDelete to overwrite the deleted space so the data can't be recovered.

If the machine doesn't boot, remove the harddrive and either drill holes in it, put it in a caddy and wipe it or simply put it in your loft of or something.

I got these guys to collect 2 laptops - they're a local service recommended by my work IT bods, other groups are available...

I signed up to Experian's credit report lockdown beforehand so I would know if anyone stole my info and tried to take out credit!

https://berkshire-computer-recycling.co.uk/

I always smash mine, I'm not prepared to risk any data of mine getting into the wrong hands, nor do I trust companies who promise to 'wipe' it all for you.
I delete everything and do a reset if possible first; however, anyone really, really determined can still access stuff.

I let the laptop sit a long time so that the charge has completely run out of the battery.

I then take it all apart, there are usually numerous tiny screws which need a tiny screwdriver. I remove the battery, it gets taken to the local battery recycling (can even be found in supermarkets) as the lithium can be reused and also because damaged lithium batteries can catch fire in the bin or rubbish centre.

I then remove all the wires, cards and boards, there are usually several in a modern laptop. I wear gloves because of the chemicals can be irritating. I bag these (to stop small bits of metal flying everywhere) and then literally smash it all with a hammer - there's no way anyone can put it together and get anything out of it. The bits, wires and so forth go into the recycling as the metals can be reused....or else to your local recycling centre.
People will say you don't have to go to these lengths but you can never tell, and besides, it gives me peace of mind which is reason enough. And a bit of recycling is a good thing too.