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How to Safely Wipe and Dispose of an Old External Hard Drive

Remove your outdated external drive in the proper method.Some people do all sorts of crazy ways to dispose of old data, and to dispose of old, dying hard drives. It doesn't matter if you throw the drive into a burning pit, or soaking it in dilute hydrochloric acid or crushing it down with a sledgehammer It's likely that your time and effort will be better used wiping and getting rid of the old hard drive in the proper method.Wiping Your Old External Hard DriveIf you're accumulating a collection of old storage devices in the storage space It's time to purchase an appropriate storage device for your hard drives or eliminate the drives completely. But if you're just looking to eliminate old data and begin with a fresh set of storage, you can take your drive off the grid. Although, it's not at all difficult to do but it's important to be aware that this could lower the lifespan of the hard drive you have externally. If you are certain that you're not likely to ever use your old external hard drive and you're trying to erase the information prior to recycling, donating or selling the drive to another person, it's more essential to eliminate all sensitive personal information and personal data. Just deleting everything isn't enough as certain software for data recovery is able to find the information. Before you wipe out the external drive ensure that you have all information that you might need to back onto a different drive. It is also possible to use an online backup tool like Carbonite, SOS Online Backup or CrashPlan to protect your data in the event of. It is possible that you're not going to keep the old data, however, in the event you do require it, you'll have it somewhere. What to Do With Your Old External Hard DriveIf you're looking to donate your old hard drive, several Salvation Army locations will accept old electronic devices that are functional. You could consider giving your old drive to a charity or an educational institution. It's best to get in touch with an institution first in order to see what they are accepting for donations. If you're planning to toss your old hard drive Don't simply throw it into the garbage. Contact your local waste management firm for more details on the best way to safely dispose of the drive you've had for a while. Certain electronic stores take in old electronics and get rid of them. If you're looking to market your old hard drive, a few repair shops for computers may purchase from you. You may also sell your old electronic items through Ebay, Craigslist, or offer it to an acquaintance. The safe disposal and cleaning of the old hard drive isn't that bad. However, if you've had an epiphany and prefer to keep track of and organize all of your old hard drives, you might want to consider hard drive storage cases such as ProStorage to organize your data and track all the old data.