Sooner or later you’ll be saying goodbye to your old computer. Maybe you’ll replace it with a newer model, maybe you’ll give it to a friend or relative, or maybe it will just stop working. Whatever the circumstances, before the machine leaves your possession there are several things you need to do to save your data, and to protect both your privacy and the environment.
Transferring Your Data
The old machine will likely have at least dozens (if not hundreds or thousands) of important files including documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos, music and the data created by your tax, accounting or other specialized applications. Whatever they are, you almost certainly don’t want to lose them. So, you need to make a plan for getting them from the old computer to the new one.
The first step is to simply identify what data you want to keep and which folders it’s located in, and that’s often a non-trivial task all by itself. You should start with the standard folders that Windows sets up for different types of files. At a minimum you’ll want to include the Documents and Pictures folders, and probably the Music, Videos and Downloads folders as well. Remember that if multiple users have logins on the computer, there is a separate set of standard folders for each user. Also include the data folders for your tax and financial software, as well as the folders used by any other applications whose data you want to keep.
Once you’ve identified the folders to be saved, you have to choose a method for transferring the data. There are several ways to do that, and the best one for you will depend on the amount of data, your expertise (or the expertise of whoever is assisting you), and the tools and resources available to you. The simplest method is to just copy all the data to a USB flash drive or external hard drive, from where it can later be copied to the new computer. If you use a cloud service like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, IDrive.com or any of the others, you can copy everything from the old computer to the cloud (if it’s not already there), and then from the cloud back down to the new computer. You can also get a specialized data cable that plugs into both computers at once, and lets you copy the data directly from one to the other.
Whichever method you choose, be sure to complete the data transfer, and verify that all the files are present and accessible on the new computer, BEFORE you move on to the next step.
Protecting Your Privacy
Once you’ve gotten your data safely transferred to the new machine, you need to take steps to prevent that data from falling into the wrong hands. The first thing to understand is that just deleting files from a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) does NOT remove the information contained in those files – it simply marks the disk areas used by the deleted files as available for re-use by other files. Over time, most (if not all) of those disk areas will be overwritten by new files (or in the case of SSDs by the automatic garbage collection feature those drives usually have) , but until that happens the contents of the deleted files can be recovered fairly easily by a determined person with the right tools.
A somewhat better approach to data destruction is to reformat the drive. Reformatting, if properly done, will make the data formerly stored on a drive unrecoverable. However, there are several caveats with this approach. First, you must do a full format (which typically takes a few hours to complete) and NOT a quick format (which may take less than a minute). You can think of quick formatting as being akin to just deleting all the files and folders – it simply removes all the meta-data (file and directory names, the disk areas occupied by each file and directory, etc.) but does not erase the actual data. So after a quick format the data is recoverable in the same way as ordinary deleted files may be recoverable. The other limitation of using reformatting to destroy your data is that if your data lives on the same drive as Windows and your applications (as it does in most cases), reformatting the drive will make the computer useless (unless and until you reinstall Windows and applications), and so it’s not an option if you want the machine to be usable when you pass it on to a family member or friend.
The best way to destroy data is by using a data wiping application. Such applications write new data (usually just repeated zeros) over the entire drive, making recovery of the overwritten data impossible. And some of those applications have the option to wipe only the unused space on a drive or particular files or folders, which allows secure permanent destruction of selected data while still leaving the computer operable.
If you don’t need to re-use the drive (or the computer it came from), you have a couple of other options. One is to physically destroy the drive, preferably by shredding it in one of the commercial drive shredders that are often available at recycling and shredding events. If a shredder isn’t available, you can render an HDD unusable by drilling several holes through it, or destroy an SSD with a hammer.
A final option is to simply remove the drive from the computer and store it in a secure place. The stored drive will also serve as an additional backup of whatever files it contains.
Protecting The Environment
After transferring your data to the new computer, and securely removing that data from the old one, you’re finally ready to dispose of the old hardware. First, hang onto any pieces that you might actually have a use for. For desktop machines, your old monitor will probably work fine with the new computer, saving you the expense of buying a new monitor. And if the new computer doesn’t have the type of video port that your old monitor needs, you can usually buy an inexpensive adapter to make the two work together. Also, you may prefer the old keyboard and mouse to whatever comes with the new computer. And extra power cords always come in handy.
When my laptop suddenly died last year, I replaced it with a later version of the same make and model. But the old laptop, even though its motherboard was totally fried, was still not a total loss. I kept the power cord, so I now have two – one stays plugged into the wall in my home office and the other stays in my laptop bag for use when I travel. I also salvaged the 500 GB SSD, which (with the purchase of an inexpensive enclosure/adapter) now has a second life as a high capacity flash drive.
Whatever parts are left over should NOT be tossed into the trash – for one thing, it’s illegal to do so in many places. And in any case, computers contain all sorts of heavy metals and other toxic substances that are destructive and dangerous when they leach from landfills into the environment. Instead, take your old computer (and any other electronic waste) to a responsible recycler who will disassemble it, recover whatever materials can be reused, and properly dispose of the rest. Philadelphia area recyclers are listed on the Resources page.