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What do you do with an old computer?

Being in the IT business, I am often asked by customers, friends and family what they should do with their old computers after they have just purchased a new one.
If you have an old computer lying around or have just bought a new one consider making use of your old PC instead of throwing it away.

Build a kids PC
If you have younger children an older PC can make a great kids computer. You won't be worried if they fill the PC with games or music. Consider replacing your old version of Windows with Linux. Ubuntu is a free version available for download from www.ubuntu.com. It runs on almost any computer and is easy to install once you download it and burn the download to a CD. You can find a full installation guide at http://tinyurl.com/yhjcrb6.

Ubuntu will let you browse the web and collect emails just like Windows. Plus thousands of users around the world have written free games you can download straight off the internet from the Ubuntu menu.

Build a file server
An old PC can make a great place to store all your documents and backup your new computer or laptop. You will need to remove all your old files from the computer and setup a 'shared folder'. This is a folder that you can access over your network from the new PC to store your documents or setup a schedule backup to automatically copy files from the new PC to the old.

Consider removing Windows and installing FreeNAS. FreeNAS is a free file storage system which allows you to make the best use of your available drive space (it's very small). If you have 2 or more drives in your computer you can setup a special backup system called RAID to reduce the changes of losing any data even more. The setup can be complicated so it is not for the faint of heart but once running is a great use of your old hardware. Find it at http://freenas.org

With either of these uses you will need to put your old PC somewhere where it has power and network access. However you can remove the screen, keyboard & mouse and leave it running all by itself.

Donate your PC
Many schools, kindergartens and daycare centres take in old computers and have them reconditioned for the kids to use so contact your local office.
Many IT companies will also take in old computers to be recycled or safely disposed of.

Check your yellowpages for a recycling plant near you who will often accept old computers or parts to be recycled. Because computers contain many toxic or hazardous parts you should always dispose of them carefully and use a qualified recycling service.

It is also important to make sure you have backed up any information on the computer you may need before you dispose of it. You should also erase the hard drive before giving it away so that no-one can take advantage of the information you have left on there.

Secure Erase is a great free tool to erase your computer and it is virtually impossible for someone to get access to your information after you do. Find Secure Erase it here: http://tinyurl.com/2xoqqw, the instructions for using it are in the ReadMe file on that website, or ask a Nerd to do it for you.

One Response to "What do you do with an old computer?"

1. BrenFM says:

   June 9, 2010 at 9:08 pm

   I’ve just installed the latest version of Ubuntu (10.04) on my slightly aged Toshiba laptop and I LOVE it. Ubuntu has finally matured to the point where I’d consider it user friendly. With previous versions I’ve dabbled a bit, but I’ve been using nothing but Ubuntu for about 3 weeks now and when I do feel the need to use Windows, I’ll simply boot up Virutal Box INSIDE Ubuntu. Loving it!