This is an old PC I have. I wanted to put Linux on it and do some experiments with homelabbing, but it’s so old-it only has 512 MB RAM and around 20 GB storage, so I don’t think I can use it that efficiently.
Also, my main problem was that I couldn’t put Linux on it because it doesn’t support USB boot, and I don’t have any CD to burn nor a burner. I tried other workarounds as well, but they didn’t work. On top of that, since this PC is full of viruses, I also can’t connect it to the internet.
So, I’m just going to sell this bad boy and purchase a secondhand PC to use as a home server.
My questions are:
- Since USB boot doesn’t work and I can’t connect to the internet, how should I format this PC so I can sell it without any worries?
- Are there any precautions I should take before selling this PC?
Take the disk out and junk it. Smash the platters with a hammer.
If you really want to save the disk and pass it on, you can buy IDE to USB adapters. Take the disk out, use the adapter and plug it in to a Linux PC, format to your hearts content.
Bear in mind that formatting, zeroing or randomising the disk dara may not completely wipe the data, and forensic tools may be able to recover it. So if its sensitive, go with the hammer option (and consider further destruction if very sensitive).
Respectfully, a single pass of randomized data is enough for everyday purposes on magnetic hard drives since 20+ years ago.
https://destroydrive.com/blog/data-wiping-1-pass-vs-3-pass-vs-7-pass-which-methodis-best/
Disclaimer: on SDDs, this is only sufficient if the full disk is overwritten, due to dynamic management of memory cells by the controller.
Fair, seems the advice has changed. I still prefer to not sell disks, especially with all the firmware trickery that disks do. Like are bad sectors zerod? Or does the firmware skip them, potentially leaving data on the disk?
I don’t have to worry if I just keep the disk or destroy it, so its peace of mind.
Well if you’re that paranoid set up encryption per disk so it hardware encrypts on the platter. A bad sector is just gibberish then. Wiping the encryption key effectively wipes the disk, and you can zero it out after as well. If you also don’t trust that use encryption at rest from a software side as well on top of everything.
To be honest I used to do the same, but then recently felt safe formatting old disks to give them away. Then discovered no one wanted a 340GB drive for free, and ended up throwing it into anl container, and at the last moment I decided to whack the controller electronics for good measure ;)
What worries me though is my growing collection of old smartphones that can’t be wiped reliably and therefore not recycled. I wouldn’t even know which chip to destroy.
Take them apart and smash any black chip. Although if they still have part codes you can search the code up to find what it is.
Blendtec blender :)
I am not even gonna click that link because I knew it was gonna be a suggestion :p
Yeah ill just keep the disk to myself. Prolly will use it somewhere or idk let it rest in peace