What to do with your old computer

Now that the New Year is a month underway, I’m sure that if you have a new computer, you have already given it a good workout. Some of you may find yourself looking to the corner and thinking what you should do with your old computer. I thought that I would tell you of some options to consider when you think that it’s time to put your old computer out to pasture.
As I have mentioned in a previous article, networking your old computer to your new one is not a bad idea. For those of you that may have missed that article or cannot remember that article, I will give you the Readers Digest version. The first things that you need to do are go to your favorite computer store and purchase a wireless network router and network cards. I recommend a wireless connection because I find it to be the easiest for the novice. It also offers a wide operational range that affords you the opportunity to move your systems in different rooms.
The next option that I suggest is to use the old system as an experimental playground. By that, I mean you can pop the hood and see what actually makes a computer tick. After you have satisfied your curiosity, you can then donate it. Yes, I said donate it. There are many benefits to donating your old computer. One of the obvious benefits to donating your old computer are the possible tax deductions. Another benefit is that it could possibly allow someone who otherwise would not have a computer to acquire one.
Information security is something to keep in mind when donating or discarding your old computer. The information security that I am referring to is the personal information that may be on computers hard drive, which may include bank information or social security numbers. Sending files or programs to the “Recycle Bin” and then empting it is not sufficient to protect your information. Formatting your hard drive is not enough; you must sanitize your hard drive. Sanitizing your hard drive consists of a series of formatting and rewriting on your hard drive to make any information that you had on your hard drive extremely difficult to recover. You can find sanitation software or a computer repair company to provide hard drive sanitation services for a reasonable amount of money.
There are several places where you can donate your old computers. If your computers function properly then you can look at donating your computer at your preferred thrift store. I personally donate my old and disabled computers to an organization call Desert Waste Not. I donate to them because they take all computers working or not. They then take the parts from broken computers to make full functional computers. They also recycle the parts that they can’t use. The worst thing that you can do is just toss your old computer in garbage. So, I hope that you consider one of these options.