QotD: Computer Recycling

Have you ever recycled an old computer or laptop?  Where did you take it, and what steps did you take to protect your personal information?

I haven't thought of it that much.  The previous equipment I have here, is here.  If I did let go of a drive, it would take Olympian geek efforts to salvage it.  Along the lines of transferring platters from one drive to an identical -- which at times is impossible seeing as technology replaces and obsoletes old models within years.  Still... What to do?  Get a high grade degausser, a hammer, a disk shredder,  and a sharp ended nail.

Plug in the degausser well and far away from any other equipment you cherish.  Place your defunct hard drives on on them and zap the shit out of it.  Then take them, place them on a hard surface and hammer the crap out of them.  You could also unscrew the casing and destroy the platters, but seeing as some of these drives are composed to harmful elements, I advise against it unless you protect yourself.

CDs, DVDs. you can nuke them in your microwave.  It's fast and kind of fun to watch.  I'm not sure however if it is safe, the electricity may find a way to arch.  Why chance it?  There are decent paper shredders available these days that can also shred discs.  If you rather not but one, take a nail to the element side (the top with the writing) and scratch away... really really well.  The element will flake off.  You can also crack them by bending them.  Wear goggles though, they tend to splinter and the element tends to fly and flake off.  The main concern, of course, is the element.

Flash devices?  I'm not sure, I haven't had to despose of these... Use brute force?

There are some components you can bring from system to system, so long as they're not broken.  Save your cd/dvd drives because when you usually purchase a new name brand computer, it only comes with one.  You can install the other and use that as well or have it installed.  Game cards, if they work and you've switched from an AGP to a PCI type system, and you have an electrostatic bag, you might be able to auction it on e-bay.  RAM?  If there was no problems with that (which sometimes comes in the form of BSODs, complete with memory address information), can also be sold. (you may be able to cannibalize any working part and sell it all piece by piece on ebay)  If you're replacing a perfectly good system that just ran a bit slow, why not use it as backup?  Swap out whatever part you think might be on the brink of failure, set it aside.

If you have the spare money and want to do some goodwill, replace the drive(s) install a brand of linux on it and donate it to a college student who's stuck in a campus computing lab typing out massive papers or donate it to good will.  Just make certain you protect your personal information first.