There are two key considerations when disposing of your computers: is it environmentally responsible and is it secure.

Environmentally responible disposal has several angles:

- Can you or a third party (such as a charity) re-use the computer or its components?

- Can the computers parts be recycled either a whole components or as materials?

Secure disposal:

Any computer with sensitive information should have the data securely destroyed either by you or a nominated third party. You options are:

- Perform a secure, low-level format of the disk. This is fairly secure but can be time consumng.

- Remove hard disks from computers and keep them securely on site, while sending the rest of the computer for disposal.

- Crush the hard disks. You can try it yourself or send it away for professional destruction where the unit is ground up.

ITS regularly advise their IT management clients on the different methods of managing old computers and safeguarding their information. Call us on 0844 358 2801 if you need someone to manage after your IT and consider these issues for you.