What to do Before Throwing Out an Old PC

There comes a point in the life of every office computer when it is simply no longer practical to keep it running and up-to-date. When it comes time to get rid of old, outdated computers, it’s not enough to simply unplug them and toss them in the nearest trash can. Disposing of old PCs requires us to do several things first, partly to appease environmental safety regulations, and partly to protect your business.

The first thing you will want ISG to do before getting rid of an old computer is to completely backup everything on the hard drive. Often, it’s simpler to just make a full disk image rather than backing up individual files. A disk image is an exact copy of your hard drive that acts as a sort of virtual drive that can be mounted or recreated just like a physical drive. This will allow us to keep all your settings, files, and configurations intact in case you ever need them again. It will also make the process of recovering old files simple, since once mounted, the disk image will essentially perfectly recreate the state of the computer when the image was made.

Once a backup is performed, with your help, we’ll inventory any software that was installed on that computer. While most of it will likely be easily replaceable or out of date (hence the need for a new computer), we might find a piece of software that was not moved over to the new machine. We’ll be sure to pay attention to any configuration options, and if possible, export these configuration profiles to the new replacement computer to make switching over simple. We’ll also check for any software or product keys that we might need to copy to activate that software on the replacement computer.

Finally, we’ll take your computer to our recycling facility.  We contract with Creative Recycling Solutions who removes and destroys the hard drive (and provides you with a certification of destruction letter) and recycles the potentially dangerous and reusable electronic components of the PC.  It’s an environmentally safe way to get rid of your old equipment at no charge to your company.

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