Not buying new

[bonniethomas06]

Well I don't begrudge you buying new at all - I would too, so that I benefitted from the warranty.

That said, it is scary to think about the mountain of old hardware piling up! If 40million people (not including offices) have a computer and replace it every 8 years, god knows how many landfills worth that is!

Our recycling centre takes old hardware and sends it somewhere to be stripped down for components. From an environmental point of view, would your old machine be better off recycled?

Unfortunately these days I think a computer is just as key to life as a washing machine - I know I couldn't exist without one.

[Flo]

I'd have to remove the hard drive or run it through a cleaning programme first before recycling the computer. No good sending it off with a lot of personal information on it!

[Green Aura]

Your last comment sparked a discussion with my OH. Apparently we still have ALL our old hard drives and laptops (OH's livelihood depends on a good computer so gets replaced fairly regularly and passed down to us mere mortals)- he'd been thinking he ought to wipe them so we can dispose of them (by whatever route).

Anyway, although he's never used it obviously, he tells me there's a site DBAN.org which offers free wiping software.

And I wonder why my house is full of junk!:lol:

[Flo]

It's quite a thing as to which side of a partnership collects most junk. All I can say is that house clearing after relatives leaving can be more traumatic than disposing of the dear departed.

[Odsox]

Apparently we still have ALL our old hard drives and laptops

So do I, right back to my first 250 Mb one. I started keeping mine in case I ever wanted anything that was on them, and now because of the security aspect.
Do you remember when they were called "Winchester Disks" and you had to take out a mortgage to buy one?

[Green Aura]

Do you remember when they were called "Winchester Disks" and you had to take out a mortgage to buy one?

No I don't! OH has just shown me a picture of one

[Odsox]

OH has just shown me a picture of one

Computer p0rn eh?

[Green Aura]

Whatever floats your boat, Tony.

Our gal has a 2TB travel hard drive that fits in a pocket and I'm guessing even that's near obselete.

[diggernotdreamer]

Anyway, although he's never used it obviously, he tells me there's a site DBAN.org which offers free wiping software.

Alternatively, I can recommend a good computer repair bloke, wiped my entire hard drive, the whole thing yep, I actually didn't want that to happen