What do I do with old dead laptops?

[SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter]

I'm the sort of person who uses these things without the first clue as to how they work! These are all my old abused ones which range from dead-as-doornails to just unreliable and slow. I need them all gone ASAP but I don't know:

1. How to rescue any files that I any want from them. Namely photos, but one has got a bunch of audiobooks I don't want to lose, and a couple have games saved to them which are as retro as they are (anyone remember 'Lemmings'?) which I'd love to salvage if I can! Can files be extracted from dead machines?
2. How to make them 'safe', so whoever gets them doesn't steal my identity or whatever
3. What they're worth
4. The best way to offload them - computer shop? Facebook? 'We Buy Any Laptop' type online outfits?

Any advice much appreciated!

I need to know this too.
I have an old laptop of DF that I can’t get into, but likely has little on, and an old one of DH that went haywire when windows 10 was downloaded. I also have an old computer tower that has millions of old photos on but is so slow I can do nothing with it. it’s all just taking up room & I don’t know what to do with it.

I was at our recycling centre yesterday and they have a huge skip for small electrical items. I guess if I launched them into the middle the info would be safe as they would soon be buried by toasters, soaked with rain and just end up being shredded somewhere for parts -but I just don’t know.

My parent's laptop died. We took it to a local guy who recovered all their files and put on a USB stick and then removed the hard drive. Then up to us what we did with the hard drive, but we could chuck the actual laptop with no security issues.
Get some recommendations and get it dealt with safely.

Don't know about getting old files off but Currys have an electrical recycling scheme for any old tech

You could take them to a computer shop and say you want the hard drives but the shop can keep everything else.
The shop might want to eBay the laptop as spares.
Worse case they give them back but hopefully tell you where to donate.
Our local dump has an old electrics section.

One thing though, I’d ask they do the hard drive removal in front of you, after all its privacy you’re concerned about right?

1. Files can be rescued from dead machines, as long it's not the disk drive that has died. If the machine still runs, plug in a good USB stick and copy off whatever you want to keep. Keep copies in several places, so if the USB stick dies, you don't lose the files. If the laptop doesn't run get a suitable USB disk caddy, take the disk out of the laptop, plug it into the caddy and copy the files off. If this is outside your comfort zone get a techie friend to do it for you. If this is outside your comfort zone get a techie friend to do it for you
2. Wipe the disks with a secure erase tool, such as DBAN. Obviously make sure any files you want to keep are safe first.
3. They are probably not worth much. Without knowing age, tech specs and condition it's hard to say much more?
4. Charities looking for laptops, Freegle/Freecycle, ebay? It's another "it depends" answer.

When buying USB sticks, get a good brand and watch out for fakes. I recently had a couple of fake SanDisk USB sticks from ebay that I would not trust with any files that mattered. Unbranded USB sticks from ebay are likely to be just as bad.

If the laptop won’t power on (by battery or mains) then the drive will be removable and could be transferred to another via an adaptor - something like this:

https://amzn.eu/d/4qbeTvl

You just need to ensure you have the right adaptor type, some can be as a single adaptor and others as multiples

If the laptop tries to turn on but the drive is clicking then it’s the drive which is the problem - these may or may not be recoverable, sometimes they won’t start up the operating system but will manage enough for copying to another with an adaptor

Look up your laptop model on YouTube with a search on ‘change hard drive’ (if you can’t find the right one then a video for a couple of others could be good enough guidance)

Usually unscrew, slide and lift off a panel from the bottom of the laptop.
Perhaps also unscrew a securing bolt/screw then slide the drive to disconnect

Then load it on another computer, search around (note that files may not be in the most obvious place - eg ‘desktop’ would be somewhere such as \windows\users\my name\desktop)

Game save files could be in the programs area with the game or user file areas etc

You can potentially also just put the old drive into another instead of its own drive and startup / logon using your old machines user name - this will mean the operating system needs to detect and set up drivers for the differing hardware

Once you are content that you have your files then you can clear it as you deem appropriate:

If you are content that there is nothing sensitive then you can delete, empty the recycle bin
Even better is to run a drive cleaner app to overwrite the ‘empty’ space

Next up would be to reformat the drive (making sure it’s a ‘full format’ not a ‘quick format)

Or a level up from that is to install a fresh system wiping the old one, or run a factory reset which would reset to the original operating system

If happy with that then sell/give it away as spares/repairs, dispose in electronic recycling etc

If not happy with that then keep the drive out and dispose / destroy in another manner
Its hard to truely destroy a drive (I witnessed the attempted destruction of Terry Pratchets hard drive at the Great Dorset Steam Fair with a steam roller - it kept surviving)

If it's running you could copy the files you want to 'dropbox' or something similar and then pick them up from 'dropbox' on your new computer. If it's dead an expert may be able to retrieve them for a price. If you don't want anything remove the hard drive and recycle the rest. You can disassemble the hard drive and give it a good bashing to make sure it is so damaged no one could get data off it before binning.