deleting and selling old computers?

[aimeekitty]

I have a 500 mhz G4 with over 1 meg of ram and a larger HD added (I think a 180 gig drive)

is there any way that I could sell this computer and have it worth my while? If so, how can I go about wiping the computer so that it doesn't have any of my information left?
Mitch also has his previous computer, which would be fine for people just checking email. My old mac however, is actually pretty decent for doing photoshop, animation/post production and some games, etc.

I could really use the money, and with me having a new computer now, the previous one is a space-hogging paperweight.

Comments

[ziggybecket.livejournal.com]

Yes, if you're going to sell the computer, wipe the hard drive. There should be free programs out there to help "scrub" the hard drive so that the next person who gets it isn't able to recover the files. Some files can be recovered from just a simple "format." That can be a good thing, like with your camera memory card.

Unfortunately I don't know that much about the software availble for the Mac.

Another thing you can do, if you can't sell it for the amount you want, is to donate it to a local school or computer recycling center. You may not get any money from it, but at least it'll give you a clean concense. :)

[gothiclibrarian.livejournal.com]

I was gonna suggest donating it too. If you guys itemize your taxes you could claim it as a deduction.

[mudron.livejournal.com]

Agh, if i weren't unemployed right now i'd toss you a few hundred bucks to take it off of your hands....

[llyriel.livejournal.com]

Hey Aimee,

You definitely want to look into scrubber software. The better the software, the more difficult it will be for people to conceivably recover files you've owned, sites you've visisted, etc. Computers tend to hide a lot of information - partially coded memories from things that you "got rid of". I wish I had more information on specific programs, but I'm pretty sure you can get some pretty powerful stuff out there that will encrypt data several times as well as do several erasures which only a complete computer geek would be able to get any information from; most people wouldn't think this is worth their time. But it might be a nice safety just to be sure no one will be picking up credit card numbers and personal information that may have at one point been stored on the computer. Good luck with it though.

[hawkstone.livejournal.com]

Reinstall Mac OS X with "erase and install" checked. That won't scrub the drive, it'll just reformat it.

Then install and run this: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12833 That will erase your free space, which is where all your sensitive data is. It won't erase OS X itself, but that won't matter.

[arashi666.livejournal.com]

well in brazil i'm sure you could sell it ^^''
but i dunno in USA ^^v
does mac HDs fit in PCs? if it do i think that my father would like the HD ^^'' (we are mp3/anime/img collectors, more HD = more stuff xD)

good luck :3

[jenova-silver.livejournal.com]

Boot off a CD (Classic or OS X whichever you are going to leave on it) for classic you need to use drive setup (in the utilities folder to erase the disc.

If you're going to do OS X switch to disc utility and you can set the option to zero out the drive when you re-format. Otherwise in the installer use Erase and install. Non boot volumes you can do either booted from the cd or using the utilities from the finder.

(If I wasn't unemployed I'd buy it off you in a heartbeat)

[mattbayne.livejournal.com]

I had that thought, too. Schools, libraries, non-profits or charities,

[justdiver.livejournal.com]

Hey there. First time to comment. I've been a frequent on your website for a long time now. Anyway, the computer thing...I've done the donating thing before. If you're going to do this, you have to first find out the computers worth. You can appraise a computer online at http://servlets.edeal.com/servlets/PcEval . Then make sure you keep a list of what you've donated and try to get a tax receipt from the person/organization you're donating to. Hope that helps.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll give that a shot!