I've got a couple of computer power sources that got fried in rural areas with spiky electricity. Does anyone know if there a place in town I can take them to where there's a reasonable chance they will be taken to a safe disposal facility as opposed to thrown into a dump to leach toxic chemicals into the soil? If so, could you tell me where it is?

Thanks!
John

I remember watching a TV program some years back that showed an "expert" (hacker?), hired by the TV program producer, was able to "retrieve" all kinds of PERSONAL DATA from the hard disks of disposed computers in a "computer junk yard".

They were able to track the former computer owner(s) all the way to where the owner(s) lives. So, before you trust your old computer to someone you WILL NOT trust with your wallet, do your homework diligently and make sure all data in each of the hard disks have been removed and bleached completely.

I too have an old laptop that needs to be recycled, but have yet to find someone to "clean" the hard disk before disposing the computer. Anyone out there with any suggestion on my aforementioned concerns will be much appreciated.

You can do the secure erase thing - which is downloadable for PC/MAC, and whatever else (google it) - it does a 3+x overwrite of your hard drive with 1's and 0's.

When that's done - if you're really paranoid - degauss the drive, then take a screwdriver or wire brush to it and rip the metal oxide on the drive platters - or you could just blow torch the thing - but that defeats the ecology focus of DiMing.

As a courtesy - if I buy used computers - I usually just format the drive a couple of times without bothering to snoop - got better things to do than rifle through other people's personals.

Ah, yes, it is difficult to clean hard disks; I hope you folks figure that out. But since I want to recycle *power sources* and the cords that come with them—also a USB mouse that went kaput—I'm pretty sure I face no risk of information insecurity.

Let's try this again. Does anyone know where I can recycle electronics? Can I take them to some place at the tech stores on 121?