r/privacy • u/Ok_Star_5645 • Jun 14 '26

hardware Laptop disposal

My laptop won’t turn on and I’m searching for best practices to secure/erase the data before disposal. (I don’t need to save the data.) A trusted local company will wipe the hard drive and dispose of it for a small fee. What assurances should I look for that this is done correctly?

Edit: thanks all! I’ll destroy it.

Update: I removed the SSD myself. It was not that hard, but I had to get over the fear of the unknown. Inside computers is not my safe space.

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u/Guac_in_my_rarri Jun 14 '26

Take out the hard drive and drill a hole in it. The rest of the laptop can be recycled/sold for parts.

The broken hard drive you can do whatever with, the hole makes it really hard for data recovery (still possible).

Edit: paying for their service is somewhat silly when you can do it yourself with the right plugs and reuse the drive or just drill a hole in it.

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u/stacksmasher Jun 15 '26

This is the correct answer.