Where do old computers go to die?

On Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:54:05 -0400, Michael Black wrote:

I take old hard drives apart, for the magnets and the shiny platters.

Having platters around is as good as if they were crushed.

They have lost identity, so nobody knows who they might have belonged to.
There's now way to trace what drive it had been in. There's no
information. Someone isn't going to go to the trouble (and it is a lot of
trouble) to recover data if they don't have some hope of it being
valuable. If they have no idea who owned the platter, they won't make that
effort.

I run the magnets over the platters and then use the platters for all
sorts of things, mug mats, bird scarers, candle stands etc.

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On Wed, 16 Sep 2015, Rodney Pont wrote:

On Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:54:05 -0400, Michael Black wrote:

I take old hard drives apart, for the magnets and the shiny platters.

Having platters around is as good as if they were crushed.

They have lost identity, so nobody knows who they might have belonged to.
There's now way to trace what drive it had been in. There's no
information. Someone isn't going to go to the trouble (and it is a lot of
trouble) to recover data if they don't have some hope of it being
valuable. If they have no idea who owned the platter, they won't make that
effort.

I run the magnets over the platters and then use the platters for all
sorts of things, mug mats, bird scarers, candle stands etc.

I've never found a use for them, but they just look so good. Some of the
pieces that hold the platter in place look good too.

Michael

On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 4:23:52 AM UTC+4, Nil wrote:
I have 5 or 6 old computer carcasses in my basement. Most of them are
AT form factor cases and motherboards, Pentium CPUs, small IDE disk
drives. Obsolete stuff that I can't think of any use for. Most of them
still work, or would with a little work.

What should I do with this junk? I don't expect it would be worth the
effort to sell the stuff considering the pennies I might get for them.
I believe I'd have to pay to have them taken away as trash, since
electronics are usually classified as hazardous material.

So, is paying to junk them the only way? Or is there another solution
I'm not thinking of? I'd really like to get rid of some dust collectors
and reclaim the storage space in my house.

Oh, and one of the computers is an "antique" Apple ][+. It still worked
when I last fired it up a few years ago. Maybe those are "collectible"?

Hi Nil,
can you give me more details about your old computers.
I am still like this old stuff and collect sometimes this old
computers and parts to sell them also sometimes.
maybe I can take some from you to acceptable Prices.

regards
uwe

I have 5 or 6 old computer carcasses in my basement. Most of them are
AT form factor cases and motherboards, Pentium CPUs, small IDE disk
drives. Obsolete stuff that I can't think of any use for. Most of them
still work, or would with a little work.

What should I do with this junk? I don't expect it would be worth the
effort to sell the stuff considering the pennies I might get for them.
I believe I'd have to pay to have them taken away as trash, since
electronics are usually classified as hazardous material.

So, is paying to junk them the only way? Or is there another solution
I'm not thinking of? I'd really like to get rid of some dust collectors
and reclaim the storage space in my house.

Oh, and one of the computers is an "antique" Apple ][+. It still worked
when I last fired it up a few years ago. Maybe those are "collectible"?

Hi Nil,
can you give me more details about your old computers.
I am still like this old stuff and collect sometimes this old
computers and parts to sell them also sometimes.
maybe I can take some from you to acceptable Prices.

Put them on eBay and Craig's List for cheap if they still work, see what
happens. Donate? Recycle into E-trash?
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