We are all familiar with Moore's law regarding the accelerating growth rate of the speed of new computer processors. There's probably another one that goes something like this: Your new computer will become obsolete in half the time it took for your old one to become obsolete.
I've got two obsolete computers, one which I use regularly, and a very old one that is taking up space. I'm contemplating buying a new one, and that means I'll need to chuck the oldest one. So just how does one go about junking an old CPU?
According to an article and ad in the Midland Reporter-Telegram, November 12 will be Texas Recycles Day, and most things recyclable will be accepted. And there's this:
Axcess Technologies will be onsite to collect donated e-waste, which it will refurbish at its Austin plant. Generated by public demand, this year marks the third the recycling event has had the component for e-waste, or electronic waste, which include televisions, stereos, DVD players and computers. Last year, donors filled a semi-truck of used computers, retaining 23,029 pounds in computers alone from the landfill, Richardson said.
Before offering the donated computers for resale, Axcess electronically cleans and tests all hard drives. Computer donors will need to sign a release form authorizing the relinquishment of their donation, Richardson said. (Emphasis added.)
Sign a release? Groan. More fine print to read. But, the obvious reason they would want a release is to use it as a defense if a buyer of the old computer mines the previous owner's personal data from the hard drive and uses it to his/her detriment.
Well that's a pretty loud message that we need to clean out any personal data from the old hard drive before tossing it. I downloaded one of those free eraser programs, but I couldn't get it loaded onto the old computer. But, I still had the quick restore disk, so I just used it to restore the hard drive to the status it was in when I brought it home from the store.
Was that enough? I was getting more and more paranoid, so I reformatted the hard drive, and did the quick restore again. Twice.
But how can a person be sure everything is either wiped off or overwritten? There might be a way, but I don't' know what it is. So I eventually called in the partnership of Chisel & Sledge. That should do it. Yeah, that should do it. I hope.
Recycles Day Followup -- What a Dump! (updated 11/17/05)
Stacks and stacks of junked computers. It looked like a scene from that movie about that little boy robot who got dumped.
Each one of those computers probably retailed for a three or four figure price tag. But, it's all junk now.
Saturday (11/12/05) was Texas Recycles day, and the Keep Midland Beautiful volunteers assisted with unloading, lifting and stacking all of the stuff. And they had a pretty good time, too.
Most manufactured items seem to have a predetermined life span, and new stuff is priced so that it's more economical to junk the old one and buy a new one than to try to repair the old one. But, our Mothers probably drilled into us: "Don't waste!"
So the Recycles Day really does make us feel so good.
As we were warned, computer junkers were asked to sign a release, a rather overt acknowledgment that even computer folks wouldn't know for sure whether the contents of a hard drive are fully erased of personal info:
"Keep Midland Beautiful, Inc. assumes no responsibility for data left on drives. The individual is responsible for the deletion of any confidential information stored in their systems."
My computer went in without a hard drive, it having already met up with Chisel and Sledge. (See above.)
Guilt free dumping. It felt so good!
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