Is it safe to donate old computers?

[fightingquaker13]

Here's the question. A friend has an old, but still ok laptop. He was going to give it to Goodwill. Then we started to wonder whether it was safe if you ever had stuff like credit cards, bank accounts etc. on it. Assuming you delete your history and passwords, can someone who trolls goodwills etc. for old machines still pull up your financial stuff to rip you off from the hard drive? Should you give an old one away, or treat it like a bank statement and shred it? (in this case involving getting to finally smash the thing )?
FQ13

[TAB]

Format would take care of all that.

[Timothy]

No, take the hard drive out of it, absolutely!  They can still use the laptop but with a compatible hard drive re-installed.

Same thing with newer printers.  They contain hard drives now as well, everything ever copied is stored and re-written over but it can never be permanently removed.

I don't trust reformatting the drive, personally.

[Pathfinder]

Format would take care of all that.

It would for a casual looker, but even after a deep reformat you can recover almost anything from an old drive if you have the right equipment.

Most banks require all computers to have the disk drives pulled and destroyed by a certified agent, and then recycle the rest. If there's any doubt as to what's on the drive, pull it and destroy it manually and recycle the carcass. Is it worth the small tax write-off to have your SSN floating around some more?

[Timothy]

I have my last two drives waiting for the campfire.

[Sponsor]

[TAB]

It would for a casual looker, but even after a deep reformat you can recover almost anything from an old drive if you have the right equipment.

Most banks require all computers to have the disk drives pulled and destroyed by a certified agent, and then recycle the rest. If there's any doubt as to what's on the drive, pull it and destroy it manually and recycle the carcass. Is it worth the small tax write-off to have your SSN floating around some more?

Yes you can recover some bits and pieces, but not many people out there have the knowlegde and the gear to do that.  I really doubt they would be the ones buying a used pc and a thrift store.   

A better option is to donate them to a school group of some kind that will put them to good use. 

PS if you have your SSN on your PC, you are asking for it to be stolen.

[twyacht]

Used my last desktop Dell to zero in my Sig556 scope,.....including the monster old school monitor.....

Wipe it, or trash it.

Otherwise, you can help out that fella in Africa that has millions waiting for your account #, to "help" him get his money in the states.

[deepwater]

there are hard drive 'shredders' that wright over data repeatedly to wipe it out, but, a friend had lost some wedding pics and had to try and recover them from a 'shredded' hard drive and we were still able to recover over 80% of the data that was on the drive. don't donate, take to the range and destroy it. (the hard drive anyway) .

deepwater

[MikeBjerum]

Format the RAM and remove the hard drive. 

Never donate, give away, throw away or recycle a hard drive!

[tombogan03884]

TAB, You and Tim are naive about this.
TAKE PATH'S ADVICE !!!Then wipe it with a LARGE  magnet, like for picking up nails in the hardware store.
How do you think the Govt. recovers data from terrorists computers after they have been killed by a Predator strike as was reported several times in Iraq.
If the G can do it any talented hacker can do it, and people who engage in fraud can certainly afford a talented hacker.