My computer has passed :(

[hamsterTK 93]

Matrix, Buzz, aged 11 years, of college station, has died today, of a sudden power supply failure which spread to his hardware.

Buzz was born in Guangzhou, China, at the Gateway 2000 computer factory, to his parents, Fry and Dot Matrix. His parents were hard-working home-built IBM clones and Buzz grew up in modest surroundings, without luxuries such as broadband internet. Buzz loved to play Simcity 2000 and download porn with his teenage user, HamsterTK. Later in life Buzz became involved in the website Simtropolis.com.

Buzz is survived by one son, Flame(born 2005), a HP Pavilion zd8000.

Buzz will be interred at the City of Bryan Electronic Waste disposal day.

[screamingman12 30]

a zd8000 eh? that should be interesting

you must really have been attached to that thing....

[SimRabbit 48]

Cool story but why dispose it?

I have one computer that had its motherboard broken (CPU are was cracked) and I simply bought a new motherboard along with a new graphics card (8800gt) and an Intel e8400 dual core processor.

That PC play any new game even in High details.

My PC was worth $200 and now it is approximately $1200 even though I spent $300 on all of those components.

[hamsterTK 93]

Because it's 11 years old, and if you fixed/upgraded it the only thing original would be the case.

a zd8000 eh? that should be interesting quote>

that's what I am using now. I got it in 05 and it's alright, I guess.

[Duke87 1,070]

Is there any information on the hard drive that could be at all sensitive? Because if there is, I'd recommend removing it and taking a sledgehammer to it before disposing of it.

[hym 358]

Just for the record, smashing a hard drive isn't always enough to prevent data recovery. A while back, a drug dealer shot his hard drive in an effort to destroy incriminating evidence. The police sent it to a recovery company who recovered 85% of the data despite the platters being in hundreds of pieces. So you might want to just crack the case open, remove the platters, and smash those directly. Or just leave them somewhere in a safe place.

[Haljackey 17,242]

Originally posted by: hamsterTK 

Buzz loved to play Simcity 2000 and download porn with his teenage user, HamsterTK. Later in life Buzz became involved in the website Simtropolis.com.quote>

Looks like you got great use out of it, I mean it did all the coolest stuff possible as described above. 

Sad to see it go.  Good news is that new compys are decent in price these days, but the downside is Vista. 

Best,

-Haljackey

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: hym Just for the record, smashing a hard drive isn't always enough to prevent data recovery. A while back, a drug dealer shot his hard drive in an effort to destroy incriminating evidence. The police sent it to a recovery company who recovered 85% of the data despite the platters being in hundreds of pieces. So you might want to just crack the case open, remove the platters, and smash those directly. Or just leave them somewhere in a safe place.quote>

I'm not so much worried about the cops or the CIA getting to it (and obviously they're very good at those things).

I'm more worried about an identity thief, who has a computer to hook up a hard drive he finds in the trash up to, but not a forensics lab to extract data off shards of it.

Still, you could always reformat it, assuming you can hook it up to another computer and it's still capable of operating in slave mode. Then nobody can extract any data off of it.

[hym 358]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Still, you could always reformat it, assuming you can hook it up to another computer and it's still capable of operating in slave mode. Then nobody can extract any data off of it. quote>

Provided you write over the data enough times.  Many professional recovery suites boast a 50% chance of recovering data stored on a reformatted drive if you've only written over the data once or twice.

[SC4 meister 7]

I say open and smash, besides, HD magnets are sooo much fun to play with... They're also great for making magnetic screwdrivers.

[screamingman12 30]

Originally posted by: hamsterTK Because it's 11 years old, and if you fixed/upgraded it the only thing original would be the case.

a zd8000 eh? that should be interesting quote>

that's what I am using now. I got it in 05 and it's alright, I guess.quote>

I have one of those, has had more problems that it should for a computer of its price range"

6 months after I bought it, HDD died (still under warranty)

Dec 08 the video card went bad (heat problems) and I had to get the mobo replaced for about $300

Now the screen has a tiny yellow vertical line running down it (screen issue, already checked).

So yeah, expect to do some work on it...

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: hym

Originally posted by: Duke87

Still, you could always reformat it, assuming you can hook it up to another computer and it's still capable of operating in slave mode. Then nobody can extract any data off of it. quote>

Provided you write over the data enough times.  Many professional recovery suites boast a 50% chance of recovering data stored on a reformatted drive if you've only written over the data once or twice.quote>

Just take a high powered magnet to it. The same ones that make the HDD work should be fine. hehe, how ironic. The same magents that keep it alive will kill it. After that, I would set it on fire, smash it, then over a series of months put about 5 peices of it in the trash at a time. That should ensure proper saftey.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Jezus53 After that, I would set it on firequote>

Problem with that: the metal that those little discs are made of is not flammable.

And, yes I have tried to burn them. With a blowtorch. I only ended up setting the circuit boards on fire... which means back off, since the smoke from silicon is toxic.

</crazy pyromaniac>

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Originally posted by: Jezus53 After that, I would set it on firequote>

Problem with that: the metal that those little discs are made of is not flammable.

And, yes I have tried to burn them. With a blowtorch. I only ended up setting the circuit boards on fire... which means back off, since the smoke from silicon is toxic.

</crazy pyromaniac>quote>

Well that's why you the whole thing. Magnet, fire, hammer, throw away in pieces. It's the perfect solution. Or you can through you're city and throw them into separate trash cans as you go. I don't know. Just thought it would be a cool suggestion.

[SC4 meister 7]

Originally posted by: Jezus53

Originally posted by: Duke87

Originally posted by: Jezus53 After that, I would set it on firequote>

Problem with that: the metal that those little discs are made of is not flammable.

And, yes I have tried to burn them. With a blowtorch. I only ended up setting the circuit boards on fire... which means back off, since the smoke from silicon is toxic.

</crazy pyromaniac>quote>

Well that's why you the whole thing. Magnet, fire, hammer, throw away in pieces. It's the perfect solution. Or you can through you're city and throw them into separate trash cans as you go. I don't know. Just thought it would be a cool suggestion.quote>

Well the trash cans would all end up in the same dump, so the difference between throwing them in different cans and at different times would be nil.  The best would be to find the nearest district with a separate dump and put half there, half in your district.  Though the idea of not putting them in your trash is pretty good, unless someone tails you you'd be good.  Though if someone is willing to tail you to get shards of your HDD to put it back together, you have bigger issues.

[ironicepitome 0]

I'm sorry about ur loss. He was apperently a very good and experienced (with the naked women) computer. Hey, everything looks better after a few shots and the Worm

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, condolences. As for secure disposal, other than porn images that might get you indicted on some smut charge or other, pretend to be Alfred E. Newman (What, me worry?). If you live near a large body of water, especially a fast moving river, smash up the individual platters then deep siz them. The materials are either inert or biodegradable, so I don't see any environmental issue.

[MrCinatit 30]

May Buzz rest in peace. I've buried two myself.

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

I was using a borrowed/inherited Gateway circa 2000 until recently, when I bought my Lenovo. I pulled the hard drive and bought an IDE to serial adapter. No worries about it ending up in the wrong hands, it's now a 15 gig slave drive and there was very little file transfer to do.

Instead of smashing it, you could buy a USB adapter and use it for backup if it still works. Just a thought. You didn't say if the drive was bad, or just the motherboard.

You could use a trial of Privacy Pro Eraser to clean it as well, if that's possible.

[hamsterTK 93]

I was considering that, but then I would need to find some kind of case for it too, as it's an internal drive but would be used with a laptop. Also would it be necessary to have the jumpers that turn it into a slave, or does the USB thing take care of that?

Anyways, to clarify this was originally the "family computer"  so I do imagine there might be some very old but still sensitive information regarding their home finances and etc stored away in all the excel files, and I made a promise to them that I would dispose of or recover the HDD and not through it in the trash.

He was apperently a very good and experienced (with the naked women) computerquote>

As for secure disposal, other than porn imagesquote>

I regret bringing that up now