My laptop died almost 6 months ago after working well and now I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it.
Do I just chuck it in the bin?
Should I do something to erase the hard drive?
Do I have to do something special with the battery?
What do I do with my old, dead laptop?
Comments
Bury it
remove the hdd, then list it on ebay/gumtree.
first look on youtube how to remove the hdd.
then look for the model number on ebay to find the price of similar machines, and then sell it at a reasonable price given the non-working status, listing it as a broken machine. there will be someone who wants to pick it up cheap and have a go at fixing it.
if this fails, then take it to a recycling station.
Definitely the best advice. Even if you only sell the dead laptop for $1, it means that someone else gets a chance at resurrecting dead hardware. It could be that your dead laptop can provide enough spare parts to bring back to life a few other machines.
Ignore everyone who tells you to destroy the HDD. It's very likely that there is nothing wrong with it and all you have to do is put it in a USB enclosure to get yourself a cheap portable HDD.
Remove the HDD, drill some holes in it, smash it with a hammer, etc.
Check your local council for e-waste optionsSecond this. I just wanted to know what it's like to hammer an hdd. Harder than I thought it'd be.
depending on how old it is, someone might want parts for it
Remove hdd.
List on facebook marketplace and gumtrre for free.Viking funeral
Remove the hard drive, give the laptop to officeworks to recycle.
Do I just chuck it in the bin?
No
Should I do something to erase the hard drive?
Yes, remove it and then destroy it if you have things that you don't want other people to see. If nothing to worry about, then meh, leave it.
Do I have to do something special with the battery?
You can dispose of the entire unit as one, search for ewaste disposal in your local area. Most councils have a free drop off point.
Post on classifieds as a freebie .
If you want to erase the whole hdd Darik's Boot and Nuke is the best option.
https://www.lifewire.com/dban-dariks-boot-and-nuke-review-26…
If you only want to securely erase particular files and folders then Eraser is best.
Make it unusable. Put windows 10 on it.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The laptop doesn't turn on anymore so I wont be able to reformat the hard drive.
Maybe the best thing would be to physically take the hard drive apart and distroy it.
If its worth the effort, you can remove the drive and put it in an external enclosure for spare storage space.
I had an old 500GB hard drive and its now being used for extra Xbox storage.Hammer a nail through the coloured dots on the hard drive, especially the red dot.
Sometimes it's impossible to find cheap screens for old laptops.
I was excited to find a broken copy of my laptop on Gumtree for spare parts
edit: never mind! (-:
You might be able to sell the ram as well.
You can recycle it at Officeworks with their "Bring IT Back" program
https://www.officeworks.com.au/information/about-us/social-r…They try to reuse parts to keep it out of landfill. You may want to remove your HD if you think there's things on it you don't want to be shared.
If the HDD still works & has a SATA interface, transfer it to an external USB case and use it for removable storage/backup for your other PCs.
Remove the HDD and use it as an portable drive.
Sell the RAM separately or along with the rest of the laptop as parts
Take whatever you can't sell after a reasonable time to e-waste recycling facility (some officeworks or local council)
"Should I do something to erase the hard drive?"
do you have personal info? banking details, nudes etc.
it's not that hard usually to disassemble a lap top and the internal hard drive making it unreadable.
as for the rest, drop it at a recycling location.
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