laptops for schools

[Exfarmer]

locally and nationally there has been a call for businesses to donate old laptops to schools
Very happy to do this and we have 3 lying about
one is probably 15 years and still fires up but not sure if it is that good
however we have 2 about 8 years a small Macbook and an HP windows machine

However for the life of me I cannot seem to clean them up!!!
there is nothing that would offend the vicar, but I do worry about financial details that I would not like people in my village to be aware of.
Even more I would not like some ten year old to get their hands on my bank account.
The Mac run s through an erase programme for nearly an hour then pops up a message that it cannot complete
The HP Windows machine does a full windows reload after warning me that I will lose all and then promptly reloads everything, I guess this isa some HP add on as it always start before the windows
I am reluctant to take them to a computer centre due to the fact we have used internet banking on them and it may well, still be accessible , particularly the Mac and its reliance on the cloud

any help?

 

[br jones]

locally and nationally there has been a call for businesses to donate old laptops to schools
Very happy to do this and we have 3 lying about
one is probably 15 years and still fires up but not sure if it is that good
however we have 2 about 8 years a small Macbook and an HP windows machine

However for the life of me I cannot seem to clean them up!!!
there is nothing that would offend the vicar, but I do worry about financial details that I would not like people in my village to be aware of.
Even more I would not like some ten year old to get their hands on my bank account.
The Mac run s through an erase programme for nearly an hour then pops up a message that it cannot complete
The HP Windows machine does a full windows reload after warning me that I will lose all and then promptly reloads everything, I guess this isa some HP add on as it always start before the windows
I am reluctant to take them to a computer centre due to the fact we have used internet banking on them and it may well, still be accessible , particularly the Mac and its reliance on the cloud

any help?

Can you restore to factory settings ?

 

[Exfarmer]

Can you restore to factory settings ?

That is what I have been trying to do , with no success

 

[milkloss]

Probably be better to remove the hard drive and replace it tbh. Wouldn't cost much i expect.

 

[farmerm]

Can you restore to factory settings ?

Be warned that doesn't actually blank what is stored on the drive... or at least not well, especially on older operating systems Think of a hard drive as a large library and a reset as someone bricking up and plastering over the entrance to a room within it, a visitor may not be able to see the room or the books but the books are still there. Now a hard drive will over time replace the books in that room and make the shelves of new books accessible to visitors but it takes a long time for all the shelves and all the books to be replaced. Someone keen with hard drive recovery software can recover full or partial files from the hard drive where blocks have not yet been over written with new data. There are hard drive eraser utilities that can do a more robust removal as they physically rewrite what is stored on the drive rather than just the markers that tell the operating system where a files data starts and ends. Sadly if you have anything that could potentially bite you on the drive then the time and hassle of being sure it is clean means it it is more cost effective to destroy the drive, scrap the rest and donate £50 for them to buy someone elses from ebay.

 

[Exfarmer]

Be warned that doesn't actually blank what is stored on the drive... or at least not well, especially on older operating systems Think of a hard drive as a large library and a reset as someone bricking up and plastering over the entrance to a room within it, a visitor may not be able to see the room or the books but the books are still there. Now a hard drive will over time replace the books in that room and make the shelves of new books accessible to visitors but it takes a long time for all the shelves and all the books to be replaced. Someone keen with hard drive recovery software can recover full or partial files from the hard drive where blocks have not yet been over written with new data. There are hard drive eraser utilities that can do a more robust removal as they physically rewrite what is stored on the drive rather than just the markers that tell the operating system where a files data starts and ends. Sadly if you have anything that could potentially bite you on the drive then the time and hassle of being sure it is clean means it it is more cost effective to destroy the drive, scrap the rest and donate £50 for them to buy someone elses from ebay.

Thanks for advice, I think you are right, just seems a shame when these could be put to good use. May investigate removing the HD from them , anyone done that

 

[farmerm]

Thanks for advice, I think you are right, just seems a shame when these could be put to good use. May investigate removing the HD from them , anyone done that

usually a 2 minute job with a small Philips screwdriver
remove laptop hard drive - Google Search

 

[bobk]

locally and nationally there has been a call for businesses to donate old laptops to schools
Very happy to do this and we have 3 lying about
one is probably 15 years and still fires up but not sure if it is that good
however we have 2 about 8 years a small Macbook and an HP windows machine

However for the life of me I cannot seem to clean them up!!!
there is nothing that would offend the vicar, but I do worry about financial details that I would not like people in my village to be aware of.
Even more I would not like some ten year old to get their hands on my bank account.
The Mac run s through an erase programme for nearly an hour then pops up a message that it cannot complete
The HP Windows machine does a full windows reload after warning me that I will lose all and then promptly reloads everything, I guess this isa some HP add on as it always start before the windows
I am reluctant to take them to a computer centre due to the fact we have used internet banking on them and it may well, still be accessible , particularly the Mac and its reliance on the cloud

any help?

Is it diesel or paraffin ?

 

[Exfarmer]

Is it diesel or paraffin ?

steam, is a bit slow, as we can no longer get the right coal


Thanks for all the good advice. Never looked in the back before and found removing HD is a doddle.
Have now arranged for the school to have them

 

[Bogweevil]

locally and nationally there has been a call for businesses to donate old laptops to schools
Very happy to do this and we have 3 lying about
one is probably 15 years and still fires up but not sure if it is that good
however we have 2 about 8 years a small Macbook and an HP windows machine

However for the life of me I cannot seem to clean them up!!!
there is nothing that would offend the vicar, but I do worry about financial details that I would not like people in my village to be aware of.
Even more I would not like some ten year old to get their hands on my bank account.
The Mac run s through an erase programme for nearly an hour then pops up a message that it cannot complete
The HP Windows machine does a full windows reload after warning me that I will lose all and then promptly reloads everything, I guess this isa some HP add on as it always start before the windows
I am reluctant to take them to a computer centre due to the fact we have used internet banking on them and it may well, still be accessible , particularly the Mac and its reliance on the cloud

any help?

Just updating my 2006 Windows Vista Samsung - it meets the Windows 10 spec* just but is just too underpowered for modern software I am afraid and not pleasant to use.

*Processor: 1 GHz (or higher) RAM: 1 GB for 32 bit OS or 2 GB for 64 bit OS. Free space: 16 GB hard disk space (or more) Graphics card: The Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics with the WDDM driver

 

[Cowabunga]

Why not just format the drive? Almost too easy to do on a Mac. Up to the agency involved to reload an OS.

 

[Exfarmer]

Why not just format the drive? Almost too easy to do on a Mac. Up to the agency involved to reload an OS.

I spent the best part of a day trying to do this , without any joy. Internet may say it is easy, IT AINT!
anyway five minutes removing hard drive and passed it on to the schools tech chappie and done.
thanks for all the advice!

 

[Bloders]

Why not just format the drive? Almost too easy to do on a Mac. Up to the agency involved to reload an OS.

My understanding, a quick format wont remove all the data, as above, its just plastering over the doorway (a great analogy @farmerm ), the data is still there. I dont think a "full format" will do any different either. You need to use the correct software which will fill every sector of the drive with nonsense and then delete it again. A bit like throwing the existing books off the book shelves to store some junk, putting the junk on the shelf, then throwing the junk off again (and putting it on a different shelf) until all sectors (shelves) have been done. Then its clear.

I recently took two old laptops to the tip. I really struggled as if someone had the inclination they would have worked ok, but they were 10 years old, removing the hard drive in one was a real pain and ultimately, they would then be 10 year old laptops with no hard drive and no OS on them, so most people would say useless. So i threm them away.

 

[Cowabunga]

I spent the best part of a day trying to do this , without any joy. Internet may say it is easy, IT AINT!
anyway five minutes removing hard drive and passed it on to the schools tech chappie and done.
thanks for all the advice!

Sorry, I was wrong. At least I think so, because I ain't about to try it. Went into Disc Manager and the option to 'Erase' is blanked off for the internal drive.

The only way I can think of then is to install a fresh OS without restoring data, but again I wouldn't know how safe that was, because I haven't tried it.
Yes, removing the HD is the best idea and only a couple of days ago I advised a friend to do just that because she too wanted to donate an old laptop to the same scheme.

 

[Cowabunga]

My understanding, a quick format wont remove all the data, as above, its just plastering over the doorway (a great analogy @farmerm ), the data is still there. I dont think a "full format" will do any different either. You need to use the correct software which will fill every sector of the drive with nonsense and then delete it again. A bit like throwing the existing books off the book shelves to store some junk, putting the junk on the shelf, then throwing the junk off again (and putting it on a different shelf) until all sectors (shelves) have been done. Then its clear.

I recently took two old laptops to the tip. I really struggled as if someone had the inclination they would have worked ok, but they were 10 years old, removing the hard drive in one was a real pain and ultimately, they would then be 10 year old laptops with no hard drive and no OS on them, so most people would say useless. So i threm them away.

Some laptops and most desktops have easy access to the HD but some don't. My iMac for instance would need to be almost completely dismantled to get at it.

 

[Netherfield]

Too completely clear a drive a file shredder programme is needed, lots of free ones out there.

Best way though is to remove the drive and connect to another computer, because the operating system doesn't want you to shred itself whilst connected to the host computer.
I've a laptop here I'd love to donate, except the battery was done for and got recycled some time ago, can't get a replacement anywhere.

 

[Still Farming]

Usually Schools IT person checks and then installs relavant software thereafter.
Unless new ish most probably waste of time as 2year old stuff obsolete and along with abuse they receive makes you wonder?

 

[Exfarmer]

Usually Schools IT person checks and then installs relavant software thereafter.
Unless new ish most probably waste of time as 2year old stuff obsolete and along with abuse they receive makes you wonder?

I was told that any age is good but that may because it is only a primary school. One of mine the battery was non existent but it still worked quite happily connected to its charger

 

[Still Farming]

I was told that any age is good but that may because it is only a primary school. One of mine the battery was non existent but it still worked quite happily connected to its charger

We use to have 2nd hand in School years ago off doctors surgery, company etc etc
Always plugged in as batteries would go and too expensive or obsolete to buy.
Had tower units also .
Keys be off them, screens go etc etc.
All good fun but advancements in technology, demands more and more off processors, wifi, etc etc , compatibility to new demanding software etc never really kept up to requirements dictated.
Horses for Courses as you say.

 

[ollie989898]

It's the batteries that are borked and many of these machines won't run an MS office suite today.

If you want to wipe a machine, do it with a bootable utility, you can't do this within windows.