What to do with old desktop PC?

[gruffalosmile]

Hi, we have a Dell desktop PC, it does have a flat screen but I guess still older style, I think it's about 9 years old. Now have a shiny new laptop. DH wants to keep the old PC "just in case" and says the flat screen could be used as a TV but I'm not sure it could. It's currently cluttering up the spare room, I want to get rid! What do you reckon?? Also how to get rid of the data etc that's on there, don't want to just take it to the dump as I have read that even if you delete the files confidential information can still be accessed. Thnaks!

No idea, DH never gets rid of old electronics we have boxes and boxes of dusty crap.

He has finally take all old fashioned monitors to the dump!

I'd like to know too! Got a desktop and an old laptop that I need to get rid of.

To wipe the disk download an Ultimate Boot CD image and create a CD from the image.

Follow these instructions to wipe your hard disks using the DBAN secure wipe tool on the CD. You can now give them away or dump them without worrying that there is sensitive data left on them.

I have always taken the hard drive out and smashed it with a hammer, but thats just me….lol

I do the same as widowerbutok.

We still have our old pc which dh and dd use for pc games but that`s it. If it is cluttering up the place I would get rid.

Take out the hardrive and stick it on freecycle or something for somebody to cannibalise.

I'd keep it as a spare - however brand new and shiny, if something went wrong with the new one (needing it to go away for repair) then you'd have something to fall back on.

Also, don't care how many important documents you may have copied to a USB stick, there may be something still on the old PC you want in 6 months. (So for that reason, I would not try any erasure software, nor the rather drastic 'hammer action'!)

Really, keep it as a spare, NetworkGuy? Ours is backed up onto another hard drive thing - surely I don't have to keep the ugly old metal box for time immemorial?

The drastic hammer action is for when you are sure you want to get rid. It's the only way to truly erase data, trust me.

You could take the old hard drive out, and buy an enclosure for it, which would basically make it an external hard drive. Then you can either just keep it like that (you'd be able to access everything currently saved on it), or wipe it and use it as extra storage.

Something like: www.amazon.co.uk/tag/hdd%20enclosure/products

for a desktop you probably want a 3.5 inch one, but you'd need to find out if your drive is IDE or SATA unless you buy one which takes either.

Personally, I wouldn't throw away perfectly good storage space.

ShotgunNotDoingThePans - a lot depends on what's been backed up (after all, you're not the OP with the query), but also, from the "having a spare" point of view, I've found there's nothing worse than needing to do something (browsing, notes for work, etc) and your PC is dead!

Thanks for answering - don't mean to hijack - I think it's just photos as the old pc was mainly a means to mn web-browse and for the DCs to play games in the good old days.
Now we all have our own devices anyway and DH has always had a separate work one.