It turns out that many people keep old computers for much too long. Earth 911 reports that fewer than half of old computers are recycled at the end of their useful lives. Privacy and data theft are the most cited reasons for this phenomenon. 

For most of us, this is generally not a valid concern. First, because very often, it’s been the hard disk (the data storage unit itself) that fails, and can no longer be read. The second, more important reason (in my mind) is that the people who actually recycle the materials have neither the time nor the inclination to examine every hard disk to see if it contains something to steal. That would require moving the drive to a working computer, running special software through a slow process of data recovery, then examining the data to see if they had captured anything interesting. These folks are presented every morning with another pile of old drives to be disassembled and destroyed for reuse of the materials and have no reason to look at the drives themselves. 

If you are still concerned about the data, which you might be if there is known to be sensitive data on the drive and, especially, if the computer still works and is being recycled through a program like that at Goodwill, you should take a couple of simple steps before leaving it for recycling. 

In most cases, simply erasing the hard disk with a reformatting utility is enough. A drive treated this way can, however, be subjected to certain types of recovery software, and the data retrieved. For more sensitive data, the U.S. Dept. of energy recommends a three-pass erasure, and the Department of  Defense recommends seven passes. That will render the drive safe from any recovery software. 

If you have a PC, there are some programs you can download, and will then restart your computer from a CD or a thumb drive, and provide the requisite number of erasures for any need.  

Apple provides a procedure using their own Drive Utility that you can access by pressing the Cmd and R keys during startup. Backblaze,com (a data backup company) has detailed procedures for then making the needed number of erasures to render the hard disk safe. 

If all else fails, there is the “eight pound solution”. In that case, you remove the drive from the computer, find the appropriate torx screwdrivers to remove the back plate, then hit the shiny disks inside with a hammer until they break into small pieces. 

The other solution I like is to drill a hole through the entire hard disk unit and mount a clock mechanism through the hole. Then you sell it for $40 at a yard sale. You can sell pretty much anything at a yard sale with a clock in it! 

The Recycle Bin is a weekly column on what to recycle, what not to recycle, and why, in Brunswick. The public is encouraged to submit questions by email to brunsrecycleinfo@gmail.com. Harry Hopcroft is a member of the Brunswick Recycling and Sustainability Committee.