Old Computer Disposal/Recycling

[PilotMan]

Hey guys I've got a great big mess that I need to start sorting through and I really don't know the best way to do it or where to begin. I've got parts, hard disks to break, a couple of old CRT's and about 6 chassis (and components) that need to go. Plus another box of random parts, cards, cords and what have you. Where do I start with this stuff?

I was thinking that I can recycle some of it at the scrapyard, but what? What's the best thing to do with the hard disks? I've been putting off this project for a while, but it's beyond time I free up some of this basement space for other things. Some of these systems are over 15 years old, they really don't have any use any more.

The last one that was being used was an old XP, Core2 1.86. The rest are even older than that. I was thinking of keeping the last one in case I needed to redo my home server, but that's about it. The current server is even lighter than that.

So how can I do this without feeling totally overwhelmed?

[BillJasper]

Buy a new house!

[molson]

Best Buy recycles electronics. I brought them a trunk load of old broken printers once and they met me curbside to haul them all away. Very convenient if you have a lot of stuff, and free.

[stevew]

Drill holes in the hard drives I think. There's ways to completely ruin one online

[PilotMan]

I had looked into using programs like Darik's Boot and Nuke to clean them off, but is that really necessary?

[stevew]

10 Easy Ways to Destroy a Hard Drive (with Pictures) (http://m.wikihow.com/Destroy-a-Hard-Drive)

Some of these look really fun.

[Thomkal]

Our local "dumps"/recycle centers have bins set aside for computer/electronic parts, so you may want to check and see if that's available there.

[flere-imsaho]

Before we moved cross-country I had to get rid of a bunch of old equipment, too. I found out the computer club at the local high school was soliciting donations, and they took it all off my hands. I did wipe the drives beforehand, simply by mounting them to a working Windows machine and doing the reformat that writes multiple zeroes or whatever it is (I can't remember exactly now).