Re: I Finally Found Myself a Christmas Present (Better Late Than Never)

On Jan 6, 1:21 pm, Jim10...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:09:00 -0500, emi...@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:07:46 -0500, "Evelyn" <evelyn.r...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"mg" <mgkel...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

Hi Emily,

Before you send those old junkers to the dump, ask around. Sometimes there
are people who can fix them up for re-use, maybe to some poor person. Ask
at your local computer shop. We have about 5 of them around here. This
past year after trying two of them (back when I had that power supply
problem) I finally drove 45 miles to where I used to live and let the
techs
there take over. Testing and diagnosing, new power supply, labor, the
works, was only just under $200 and the thing is as good as new ever
since.
As has already been mentioned, quite often computers get clogged and just
need a fresh start with all the programs reinstalled. This by the way, is
something I do not do. My stepson or the computer shop will get the job.
I defragment it often, and if that doesn't fix it, I know it is beyond me.

I love old computers. A couple of years ago, for instance, I was able
to get an old 450Mhz computer for $50, including a pretty good
monitor. I cleaned off the hard drive and re-installed Windows 98 and
the drivers and some software. I also happen to own an old copy of
Office 97 and I put that on also.

I gave the computer to an old friend's father who has no money, whose
old Apple computer had broke and had a hobby of writing novels. He had
written 5 of them (none published), but it gave him something to do
and he wanted to finish his novels and get them all on CDs to leave to
his grandchildren. It was the perfect computer for him. What looks
like junk to one person, can often turn out to be very valuable for
another.

***************

Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking of!   There are young people and
older people who would love to have a computer for some simple task, or even
just for email and typing letters.   A lot of the old machines people might
ordinarily throw out, would suit them just fine!

I will offer them on Freecycle after I've reformatted the hard drives,

I would not do that!!!!  I have see smart people rip data off
allegedly reformatted drives.  I gave two old computers away to a
charity recently.  But, I took those drive out first.  I pull them
apart and then bashed up the disks.  

There are programs like GETBACKDATA, running Run Active@ UNERASER, etc

Search on google for RECOVER DATA REFORMAT for many solutions.  

I don't trust anybody with my hard drives or data.

There's a free program called Active@ Kill Disk that's probably pretty
safe for erasing your hard drive data. I would guess the free version
would be very safe if you had the patience to run it a dozen times. To
get the US Department of Defense 5220.22 M compliant version, though,
costs $39.95 to $59.95 depending on what version you buy.
http://www.killdisk.com/orderform.htm

but if no one there wants them, I don't have a Plan B.  There are no
computer shops around here that I know of.  The computer that's ready
to go now, except for reformatting the hard drive, must be close to
ten years old and is very slow.  I wish I knew someone like mg who
liked to fiddle with them and would give them to someone after he
spruced them up.  



.

Relevant Pages

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