Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks Disposing of G4 Tower Mac

I'm taking an old G4 (OS 9) to the dump (recycle center) tomorrow. The fact that it's a community recycle center makes me think I should render it completely unusable to anyone else (my work files and personal files are on the HD).

It's too late to wipe the disk - I have the old CRT monitor which went with it, and which is also going to the dump, but the vital connection between the two is now missing.

My idea is, to open it up, and sever (with scissors) all the internal electrical connections I can see, before surrendering it to whoever is out there at the recycle centre. Short of a club-hammer on the HD, does anyone else have any better ideas? (Paranoia with stolen ID from old computer? Me?)

Thanks

Open the case with a screwdriver, take out the HD, and send the rest to the dump worry-free. (You should have no trouble identifying the HD if you give it a moment or two of thought.)

Also, make sure there isn't a disc in the optical drive.

Then you can take to the HD with a hammer, a giant electro-magnet, aqua regia, whatever, and sleep tight.

Edit: Outside of the HD, everything inside a computer case is dead hardware, i.e. the RAM is memoryless (because it's "volatile memory..." requires power to maintain its storage capability), and the rest is just circuitry.

Hi, thanks for replying.

The G4 Tower opened with a swing-down side. I've only done that once before, years ago, to put more memory cards in.

I was astonished at how filthy it was, and amazed that it still worked with all the grot in there. I was also amazed at how much empty space there is inside an Apple Tower.

Identifying the HD was fairly easy - it wasn't the box-shaped CD drive, or the box-shaped power supply, so it had to be the other box shape screwed to the floor. Cleaning off the grot revealed Apple logo, pull out ribbon cable, undo one screw and out it came.

I've never done this to an old computer before, so presume that the current climate of data and identity theft has finally got to me.

I certainly got my money's worth on that old G4, I'd had it for years and it was in daily production. That's why I felt a stupid sentimental attachment to it.

A friend of mine once disposed of a PC with sensitive information on its HD precisely as you were thinking of doing... He destroyed the guts, left the HD intact, and put the machine out with the trash.

He nearly had a heart attack when I explained to him that he had both left his info intact and made it a target for prying eyes (by suggesting that he intended to destroy it).

He got veeery lucky!

You were right on the mark asking what to do, and I'm happy if I was helpful.

(I assume that the empty space is to help bleed off heat from the processors and that the filth comes from the outside air the fans draw in to cool them.)