Can I ask a question of the computer-savvy amongst you, please?
I have an old eMac that I want to recycle, so am trying to wipe it. It’s got os 9.2 & X and I don’t have the original discs it came with, so can’t do the standard disc erase.
In 9.2 I tried putting all everything in the trash with the aim of deleting them that way (yup, I’m a clueless idiot, lol), and got to the point that it froze up so I restarted it, and now it’s got a blank screen with these 2 alternating images. Unplugged and restarted a couple of times with same result.
My main question is, is it safe to recycle in this state? I doubt there’s anything too personal on it anyway but just want to be sure. Or should I cut off the power cord? Don’t really want to go to a Mac shop as I’ve already wasted enough $ buying it in the first place.
Last time I did this I pulled the drive bashed a few nails through it and let sit in a bucket of heavily salted water. I am also partial to tin foil hats.
Can I ask a question of the computer-savvy amongst you, please?
I have an old eMac that I want to recycle, so am trying to wipe it. It’s got os 9.2 & X and I don’t have the original discs it came with, so can’t do the standard disc erase.
In 9.2 I tried putting all everything in the trash with the aim of deleting them that way (yup, I’m a clueless idiot, lol), and got to the point that it froze up so I restarted it, and now it’s got a blank screen with these 2 alternating images. Unplugged and restarted a couple of times with same result.
My main question is, is it safe to recycle in this state? I doubt there’s anything too personal on it anyway but just want to be sure. Or should I cut off the power cord? Don’t really want to go to a Mac shop as I’ve already wasted enough $ buying it in the first place.
They may be able to recover it and reinstall the OS by using the recovery mode.
Try and boot up the laptop and hold Command & R as you boot or reboot it and see what options it’ll give you.
Personally I wouldn’t bother, cutting off the power cord does help tell people it’s waste though.
If I was paranoid about someone finding my AskJeeves search history, I’d open it and smash the HDD platter inside (or just go over it with a magnet).
I erase as much as I can, then take out batteries, then smash it all, then add water or glue
Last time I did this I pulled the drive bashed a few nails through it and let sit in a bucket of heavily salted water. I am also partial to tin foil hats.
ooo, you use salty water, I just do plain water, I also do glue in the works
Put the whole thing in the eWaste bin at the transfer station (tip).
you can probably download and burn the macOS disks if you have access to the media
Thanks everyone! I got this far then decided life’s too short, and if anyone wants my bad early 2000’s animations they can have at them.
(I might still hose it down though, just in case)
Destroy the motherboard 🤷♀️ whatever that looks like 🤷♀️
I don’t know which bit that is and I’m too scared to touch anything for fear of electrocution (even though it’s unplugged) 😂
Ok, the man said take a hammer to the hard drive 🤷♀️