tpriest
Active member
- Local time
- 3:59 PM
- Posts
- 34
- OS
- Win 11 Home 25H2 (OS Build 26200.7019)
A non-technical elderly friend who is paranoid about privacy changed her laptop for one running Win 11 late last year. I've helped her with PC problems for several years and said I was happy to securely destroy her old PC and HDD as I've done for others many times.
She said she'd think about it.
A couple of weeks later she told me that she'd ripped of the screen with a large screwdriver, fortunately not damaging the screen itself. She then put the base unit in a bucket of water overnight; as the bucket wasn't big enough to hold the whole unit she turned it over the following day.
A month or so later she brought it to me to securely dispose of. I stripped the whole unit down, sure enough there were signs of slight corrosion on the internal ironwork. I then opened the 2.5" HDD. There was no sign whatsoever of water ingress - perhaps not too surprising given the sealed nature of the unit. Though I wouldn't have wanted to connect it up as the external PCB is likely to have been water damaged. I then removed the heads and the 2 platters and, while containing them in a bag, broke them into many pieces. There was no way any data could have been recovered!
After showing the lady the "bits" they were disposed of appropriately and safely.
Not come across a "drowned" PC before.
She said she'd think about it.
A couple of weeks later she told me that she'd ripped of the screen with a large screwdriver, fortunately not damaging the screen itself. She then put the base unit in a bucket of water overnight; as the bucket wasn't big enough to hold the whole unit she turned it over the following day.
A month or so later she brought it to me to securely dispose of. I stripped the whole unit down, sure enough there were signs of slight corrosion on the internal ironwork. I then opened the 2.5" HDD. There was no sign whatsoever of water ingress - perhaps not too surprising given the sealed nature of the unit. Though I wouldn't have wanted to connect it up as the external PCB is likely to have been water damaged. I then removed the heads and the 2 platters and, while containing them in a bag, broke them into many pieces. There was no way any data could have been recovered!
After showing the lady the "bits" they were disposed of appropriately and safely.
Not come across a "drowned" PC before.
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- Win 11 Home 25H2 (OS Build 26200.7019)
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Custom build
- CPU
- Intel Core i7 14700
- Motherboard
- ASUS PRIME B760M-K D4 (LGA1700)
- Memory
- 32GB Corsair Vengeance
- Graphics Card(s)
- Built in
- Sound Card
- Built in
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Benq G2222HDL 21.5"
- Screen Resolution
- 1920 x 1080
- Hard Drives
- 512Gb SSD
1Tb SSD
- PSU
- Vida
- Case
- Fractal Pop Air
- Keyboard
- Standard PS/2 wired keyboard
- Mouse
- Microsoft USB wired wheel mouse
- Internet Speed
- 500Mbps
- Browser
- Chrome
- Antivirus
- Defender
-
- Operating System
- Win 11 Home 24H2 (OS Build 26100.4202)
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- HP Zbook Fury
- CPU
- 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1150H
- Motherboard
- HP 8AA1 KBC
- Memory
- 16Gb
- Graphics card(s)
- Built in
- Sound Card
- Built in
- Hard Drives
- 1Tb SSD
- Internet Speed
- 500Mbps
- Browser
- Chrome
- Antivirus
- Defender
