4 Ways to Responsibly Take Care of Your Old Technology

It’s a routine move for businesses to perform a “hardware refresh” and procure new technology. It’s certainly nice to get new technology, but what’s your plan for handling your old devices? Instead of just tossing it in the garbage, make sure to consider all of your options in order to properly handle your old equipment.

Priority 1: Your Old Data
First and foremost, you need to properly take care of your data. To be clear, this involves more than dragging and dropping your files into the Recycle Bin. When deleting files this way, it doesn’t actually remove the data from the hard drive, which means that your files can still be recovered. Instead, you’re going to want to wipe your old hard drive, a procedure that completely erases all data on the drive.

If you’re going to dispose of your old hard drive, you’ll actually want to physically destroy it. This can effectively be done by using a tool like a drill press, or a couple of swings with a good ol’ sledgehammer ought to do the trick. Once you toss your hard drive in the garbage, you can’t be certain where it will end up. As improbable as it sounds, there’s actually a chance that your old hard drive could end up in the hands of a trash-collecting hacker. Therefore, you shouldn’t throw away any data that has a chance of being recovered. Computerware can assist you with properly wiping and destroying your old hard drive.

Donate Your Old Technology to Charity
There are a lot of charitable organizations out there that would be happy to accept your old computer equipment. However, you’ll at least want to do them the courtesy of donating something that’s useful, instead of pawning off your technology problems onto them. For example, we recommend contacting the charity first to see if they even need your old equipment, instead of randomly showing up with a truckload of random computers.

One relatively inexpensive way to make sure that you’re donating quality-used equipment is to equip your old technology with a new hard drive before donating it. Given the fact that the average hard disk drive has a lifespan of five years, you don’t want to gift a computer that has a high chance of crashing. Plus, if you swap out the old hard drive for a new one, you’ll mitigate the risk of having your files recovered from the old drive and used for nefarious purposes.

Repurpose and Reuse Old Hardware
Your old computer may still yet have a use around the office by way of repurposing and reusing it. Consider these examples:

• Using an old PC for a print or fax server will alleviate network traffic (though it would require reconfigurations to be made).
• Keeping the computer on hand for spare parts.
• Keeping a working computer on hand as a spare workstation, just in case an operational PC runs into an issue and needs to be temporarily swapped out.

Don’t Forget About Recycling
If you must dispose of your old technology, it’s preferred that you do the responsible thing and recycle it. One reason for such a move is due to the toxic metals that make up electrical components. By simply chucking an old PC into the landfill, these chemicals will leak into the environment and cause problems. Recycling your old technology doesn’t have to be a burden. Computerware will happily do it for you.

When it comes to getting rid of your old technology, it’s best to have a plan. Our knowledgeable technicians are standing by to assist with any of your company’s technology needs. To learn more, reach out to Computerware at (703) 821-8200.