Delete Before Donating that Dinosaur
Mar 13 '00
PC’s get outdated quickly and we find ourselves sometimes wondering what to do with that old PC when we finally purchase a new one. A very good thing to do is to donate your old computer so it can be reborn to help others.
I am involved with a non-profit organization that will take old PC’s, fix them up and give them to a person or family that cannot afford to purchase a computer either for themselves or for their children. I don’t help with the refurbishing of these, I just have to try and locate them. But, a potential computer donor recently asked a very good question: What should computer donors do to protect the personal information they may have on their donated hard drives?
Of course, the quick answer is, copy what you want to save and delete your personal data files before you donate. But, there is a problem with that answer. Manually deleted files aren’t really erased. Deleted files still reside on your hard drive; they are simply overwritten when that space is needed. But, it takes special software or expertise to retrieve such deleted files, and the danger of that happening is remote unless you’ve just donated your computer to Hackers Anonymous.
The procedure that I am aware of that happens when an old computer’s files are cleaned is that the hard drives are formatted, a process that wipes the disk clean, before the refurbishing is started. Even though most organizations that accept computer donations do this, I would recommend that you do this yourself, if you are truly concerned about the privacy of your old files.
To format a hard drive, first make sure you have your original system disks. Go into My Computer, right-click on the “C” drive and select Format, but be forewarned: Once you do that, all your programs and files are lost forever.
There also are some special programs, like the WipeInfo feature of Norton Systemworks and Norton Utilities (from Symantec, www.symantec.com) that will overwrite files with zeros or can even do a government-level wipe to the specifications of the Defense Department.
But, since most of us don’t need to take such high security measures, here are some tips on hand-deleting files to follow before you sell or donate your used PC:
- Back up data files that you will still need to floppy disks or other removable media, like a Zip disk.
- Go through your document folders, including those attached to programs like Word or Quicken, and delete those files.
- Don’t forget image or graphics project files, which often are in folders under a program’s main folder.
- Clear out your e-mail, including the trash bin folders.
- Delete all your temporary Internet files, cached files and history files from your Internet browser (for Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to Internet Options; in later versions of Netscape Navigator, go to Preferences and clear the history, then go into Advanced, then Cache and clear the disk and memory caches). Clear e-mail addresses and ISP information in the connections settings.
You shall now have peace of mind concerning your privacy if you ever decide you would like to donate that old computer of yours. If you think that nobody would want that old dinosaur PC, think again. There are many, many people out there who are unable to afford any type of a computer and when they receive one, they are extremely grateful for any type of computer that they are able to learn and work on in order to help better themselves or their children.
If you are considering donating your old PC, please call any of your local non-profit agencies and they will be able to guide you to who and how to donate. You will find your old PC a new home with the assurance that it will be appreciated and loved no matter how many Megahertz it has.
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