You can just toss that old hard drive in a drawer, which is the cheapest way to be sure nobody will access it, but if you’d just like to be rid of it, I’d recommend destroying it.

If you remove the hard drive, then you can feel safe donating or (properly) disposing of your computer. However, you still have to make sure that the hard drive is destroyed in a way that makes it ...

A reader asks for guidelines on clearing data and disposing of old electronics, like cell phones and computers.

However you choose to dispose of your computer, remember to remove personal and financial information that someone else could access.