I hope you all had a nice holiday, and that perhaps Santa put a new PC under the tree.
Normally at this time of the year I would be doing a column on summarizing the high points of computing in 2006, but I had a request from a reader to discuss the issues of migrating to your new PC and disposing of your old one. I will do the 2006 look-back next week.
When you open up the box of your new PC, you should not immediately replace your old one - set up the new one on a spare piece of horizontal real estate until you have everything moved over and running. First, get your Internet access running and then you should make sure all pending Windows updates are applied (Start / All Programs / Windows Update). Make sure that you have a good anti-virus and firewall program. Your new PC may come with these programs, but you will probably need to install them before they will function properly.
You should then make a list of all the programs you use on the old PC and find out where these programs store their data - the answer is often not obvious. This list will help guide you when you move this data. You can move the data by various means, but writing it to CDs is often a good way to do it as you will then also have a backup. Unfortunately, the scope of this is too much for a column, so if you don't know how to do this, please see a local professional (shameless plug). Once you have everything moved and your new PC is operational, then you can physically move it to its proper place.
The question now becomes: What to do with your old PC? You have one critical decision to make here - whether to keep your old hard drive or dispose of it with the PC. Note: the "hard drive" is your C: drive, and it is a small (about 3.5" x 6" x .5") unit inside the case of the PC - many people call the entire box the "hard drive" and this is not correct.
For total security of your data, keeping your hard drive is the best approach. If you remove the hard drive, there is no other component in the PC box that stores any data, so you are safe. Just open the case, remove the hard drive and put it on a shelf somewhere. The downside of this is that you can no longer donate your PC for use by someone else - it is no longer functional.
If you decide to donate the PC, I would recommend reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows. This should sufficiently hide any of your data, unless you are paranoid or unless you have a legal responsibility to do more. If so, there are programs that will wipe the hard drive that you can find on the Internet. One possibility is to go to www.download.com and search for "wipe" and take your choice.
The next question is: Recycle or donate? We would all like to recycle properly, but it isn't easy to do. There is a pending bill in the NC Senate to collect a $4 fee when purchasing a new PC to pay for local recycling centers. Unfortunately, that is not yet in effect. Dell Computer says on their website that they will help customers recycle their old PCs, but I couldn't find any information on how that actually works. Even if you find someone who will accept your old PC for recycling, the recycling itself may be "free" but the shipping probably not - and this can be very expensive. So, at the current time, proper recycling does not seem to be a viable option here in our local area.
If you wish to donate your old PC, you can probably claim some tax deduction. But to do so, the PC must be whole (usually including monitor) and operational and it shouldn't be just "junk". That means that if it's broke, don't try to donate it! If the PC does not run Windows XP, I would say that it isn't worth donating.
The question is where to donate it to? In the past there have been some local organizations that will take old PCs and re-use them in third world countries or schools, but I don't know of any operating locally at the current time. Donating to a local school or church may be possible, but check first if they will in fact accept the PC and what condition it has to be in.
If anyone in the local area knows of either a recycling facility or a group that takes donations, please contact me and I will reprint the information here.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)