Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


--
Tim Lamb

In message , Tim Lamb
writes
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of
interest? Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.

Post script...

Can I just dump the old routers or do they contain anything
incriminating?

--
Tim Lamb

On Wed, 03 Jan 2018 21:15:59 +0000, Tim Lamb wrote:

Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

;-)

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

It always seems a shame to disable an old PC like that when it's actually
working (assuming it is etc).

So, what I might be inclined to do is get a copy of DBAN and securely
wipe the drive (assuming you don't want what's on it etc), it's just a
couple of inputs and you leave it to do it's thing.

At that point you could stick it on Freecycle / Freegle and let them 1)
come and get it and 2) do what they want with it.

Or, get a copy of Linux Mint (MATE) if it's only got a basic graphics
solution and stick that on it (you could try it first from the LiveDVD)
and then give it away as a complete working solution. ;-)


There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.

If you needed a high current 12V DC supply to run some lights or a de-
rusting tank then you only need to short a couple of wires on the ATX
plug (green and black) to get it to power up and connect up the wires you
need (yellow is +12 and black (gnd) to your load and you are good to
go. ;-)

I'll process the PC and give it away for you if you don't get any other
takers. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

T i m wrote
Tim Lamb wrote

Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall
for too long. I am told the space is needed for a row
of wellington boots in readiness for the next GC. visit!

;-)

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

It always seems a shame to disable an old PC like
that when it's actually working (assuming it is etc).

So, what I might be inclined to do is get a copy of DBAN and
securely wipe the drive (assuming you don't want what's on it
etc), it's just a couple of inputs and you leave it to do it's thing.

At that point you could stick it on Freecycle / Freegle and let
them 1) come and get it and 2) do what they want with it.

Never seen anyone want them here. Same with even decent glass monitors.

Or, get a copy of Linux Mint (MATE) if it's only got a basic graphics
solution and stick that on it (you could try it first from the LiveDVD)
and then give it away as a complete working solution. ;-)

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC
power supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components
around the time TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.

If you needed a high current 12V DC supply to run some lights or a de-
rusting tank then you only need to short a couple of wires on the ATX
plug (green and black) to get it to power up and connect up the wires you
need (yellow is +12 and black (gnd) to your load and you are good to go.
;-)

I'll process the PC and give it away for
you if you don't get any other takers. ;-)

Be interesting to see if anyone wants it.

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 09:57:51 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote:

T i m wrote
Tim Lamb wrote

Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall
for too long. I am told the space is needed for a row
of wellington boots in readiness for the next GC. visit!

;-)

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

It always seems a shame to disable an old PC like
that when it's actually working (assuming it is etc).

So, what I might be inclined to do is get a copy of DBAN and
securely wipe the drive (assuming you don't want what's on it
etc), it's just a couple of inputs and you leave it to do it's thing.

At that point you could stick it on Freecycle / Freegle and let
them 1) come and get it and 2) do what they want with it.

Never seen anyone want them here.

All I have seen offered have been taken?

Same with even decent glass monitors.

I've seen glass TV's going still as well (but not monitors).

Or, get a copy of Linux Mint (MATE) if it's only got a basic graphics
solution and stick that on it (you could try it first from the LiveDVD)
and then give it away as a complete working solution. ;-)

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC
power supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components
around the time TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.

If you needed a high current 12V DC supply to run some lights or a de-
rusting tank then you only need to short a couple of wires on the ATX
plug (green and black) to get it to power up and connect up the wires you
need (yellow is +12 and black (gnd) to your load and you are good to go.
;-)

I'll process the PC and give it away for
you if you don't get any other takers. ;-)

Be interesting to see if anyone wants it.

It will with Linux on ... and I wonder how long it will stay on, if it
still carries (even) an XP COA? ;-)

I'm still using XP (on this Mac Mini) every day. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On Wed, 3 Jan 2018 21:19:51 +0000, Tim Lamb
wrote:

In message , Tim Lamb
writes
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of
interest? Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.

Post script...

Can I just dump the old routers or do they contain anything
incriminating?

Not incriminating typically (unless you have one of the more
sophisticated units with stats and logging) but could in some cases
reveal your ADSL authentication ID and even password (FWIW etc).

Simplest thing would be to 'factory restore it' by typically just
either powering it up with the reset button held in for 10+ seconds or
just holding the reset button for 10+ seconds etc.

Again, often of little use to anyone *except* if it happens to be one
of the models that will accept alternative / open source firmware,
like OpenWRT, DD-WRT or Tomato.

https://openwrt.org/
https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start

https://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

Or, some of them can be set into 'Access Point Mode', a wireless
repeater (might be handy in R. Cott?) or as a 4 port HUB or switch.
;-)

Cheers, T i m

If it had a reliable CD/DVD writer in it, that might be of use. Many of the
modern ones I get are crap at writing cds that my normal CD player can read,
whereas those of a few years back seem to be better at this job. My guess is
that the newer devices are jack of all trades, masters of none.

Some electronic bods like the old psus to give them bench power supplies,
got any ham radio groups near you?
What is the keyboard like. If its usb and reasonable might be better than
the el cheapo ones you get these days.
Keep the mains lead.
Its a pity you don't have the room as I have a number of old xp machines in
use as back up storage when needed on a network.

Memory sticks only of use to people trying to keep old machine running.
If it has separate sound card can be handy if its still a supported model,
but not many are now.
What other cards does it have. Serial or parralel cards, network cards and
any non graphics card can be handy to some people.
Rest is probably recyclable.
As you say, unless you can use the ide drive locally, you need to
physically destroy it if it has any chance of holding personal info.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Tim Lamb" wrote in message
...
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time TTL
came along so nothing springs to my mind.


--
Tim Lamb

On 03/01/2018 21:15, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I've got a few of these that were 'retired' when the current
(ex-corporate) Win10 boxes were installed in the home office.

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?
I'd like them to go to somewhere where they'll be used, but don't
particularly want my bank account emptied or my email hacked!

Thanks
Adrian

On 1/3/2018 9:15 PM, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I will never give up XP outlook distress or my desk top computers
......hate windoze 10 .....

--
sent on windows 10 and Thunderbird .....
Follow my lead...ignore Brian Reay ....

On 04/01/18 08:53, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 03/01/2018 21:15, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I
am told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness
for the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of
interest? Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I've got a few of these that were 'retired' when the current
(ex-corporate) Win10 boxes were installed in the home office.

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?

Ive got 4 now and all have had XP install wiped.

And new disks isntalled and now run Linux, faster than they ever ran XP...



I'd like them to go to somewhere where they'll be used, but don't
particularly want my bank account emptied or my email hacked!

Thanks
Adrian





--
"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They
always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them"

Margaret Thatcher

In message , T i m
writes
On Wed, 03 Jan 2018 21:15:59 +0000, Tim Lamb wrote:

Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!
Snip..
There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.

If you needed a high current 12V DC supply to run some lights or a de-
rusting tank then you only need to short a couple of wires on the ATX
plug (green and black) to get it to power up and connect up the wires you
need (yellow is +12 and black (gnd) to your load and you are good to
go. ;-)

I'll process the PC and give it away for you if you don't get any other
takers. ;-)

That might be the simplest solution although I can hammer a nail through
the drive as well as anyone:-)

The de-rusting power supply is interesting but unlikely to happen as I
rely on the trusty angle grinder with a cup wheel brush.

Bits for R. Cott. is also interesting as I fully intended to pick your
brains:-) The spare routers are Technicolour TG582n PRO and Thomson
ST585 v6. Progress so far is to run cat6 cable here and there in
readiness.

--
Tim Lamb

On Thursday, 4 January 2018 10:05:32 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 04/01/18 08:53, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 03/01/2018 21:15, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I
am told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness
for the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of
interest? Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I've got a few of these that were 'retired' when the current
(ex-corporate) Win10 boxes were installed in the home office.

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?

Ive got 4 now and all have had XP install wiped.

And new disks isntalled and now run Linux, faster than they ever ran XP...

And the point of running Linux fasters is ?

On 04/01/2018 10:06, Huge wrote:
On 2018-01-04, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

[15 lines snipped]

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?

No. Run DBAN on them and install Linux Mint.


If I'm not sure what the next owner will want to do with them, I guess I
might as well just DBAN them. They can then install whatever they want..
Thanks
Adrian

In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
Ive got 4 now and all have had XP install wiped.

And new disks isntalled and now run Linux, faster than they ever ran XP...

Sadly, just as it would be with Win10, this is not an option here, where
I need to support certain hardware and run certain programs.

At the moment, I'm struggling to revert to XP on a Mint laptop that
seems to have had its bios corrupted by a previous owner.
--
Bill

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 08:53:55 +0000, Adrian Brentnall
wrote:

snip

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?

I think the closest 'easy' way is to create a new user / admin account
and deleting the accounts and data for all the others. Then you could
use something like Ccleaner to wipe the free space and / or
Defraggler, after emptying the recycling bin of course. ;-)

I'd like them to go to somewhere where they'll be used, but don't
particularly want my bank account emptied or my email hacked!

Assuming you have the original licence and install media (although you
can get the latter online), XP can be quite quick to re-install, made
much easier if you have the drivers on hand ready to install all the
bits that aren't detected automatically.

Or as mentioned elsewhere, wipe it with something like a DBAN boot CD
and then install Linux Mint on it, leaving the new owner to re-install
XP (or whatever) if they want.

Cheers, T i m

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 10:05:29 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

snip

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?

Ive got 4 now and all have had XP install wiped.

And new disks isntalled and now run Linux, faster than they ever ran XP...

Try installing Linux on 64M of RAM (or at least a version that is as
useable as XP still is).

*Every* installation of Linux I've done on any old XP PC has run
*slower* than XP did, assuming you aren't just a nerd and only using
the CLI etc (and MSDOS was probably just as fast).

The biggest killer is finding an efficient graphics card driver for
Linux for the older stuff. Ok, it might 'work' but rarely works better
than a manufacturers driver written specifically for the job.

That said, assuming it actually runs, it's probably *easier* to
install Linux on an old PC for someone who doesn't know their way
around Windows drivers ... assuming you then actually make use of it
afterwards.

My mate still sells old / low spec Linux laptops because people use
them for running car diagnostic tools (that won't run on Linux).

Cheers, T i m

On 04/01/18 10:33, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 4 January 2018 10:05:32 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 04/01/18 08:53, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 03/01/2018 21:15, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I
am told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness
for the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of
interest? Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I've got a few of these that were 'retired' when the current
(ex-corporate) Win10 boxes were installed in the home office.

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?

Ive got 4 now and all have had XP install wiped.

And new disks isntalled and now run Linux, faster than they ever ran XP...

And the point of running Linux fasters is ?

who said there was a point?

I merely noted that old hardware can be recycled to do specific stuff
better using Linux




--
Of what good are dead warriors? €¦ Warriors are those who desire battle
more than peace. Those who seek battle despite peace. Those who thump
their spears on the ground and talk of honor. Those who leap high the
battle dance and dream of glory €¦ The good of dead warriors, Mother, is
that they are dead.
Sheri S Tepper: The Awakeners.

On 04/01/18 11:16, Bill wrote:
In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
Ive got 4 now and all have had XP install wiped.

And new disks isntalled and now run Linux, faster than they ever ran
XP...

Sadly, just as it would be with Win10, this is not an option here, where
I need to support certain hardware and run certain programs.

At the moment, I'm struggling to revert to XP on a Mint laptop that
seems to have had its bios corrupted by a previous owner.

Legacy boot is what you use to get rid of Microsoft. YOu may need to
revert to UEFI to get windows to reinstall, thiugh why anyone would want
to...


--
Of what good are dead warriors? €¦ Warriors are those who desire battle
more than peace. Those who seek battle despite peace. Those who thump
their spears on the ground and talk of honor. Those who leap high the
battle dance and dream of glory €¦ The good of dead warriors, Mother, is
that they are dead.
Sheri S Tepper: The Awakeners.

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 10:07:18 +0000, Tim Lamb
wrote:

snip

I'll process the PC and give it away for you if you don't get any other
takers. ;-)

That might be the simplest solution although I can hammer a nail through
the drive as well as anyone:-)

;-(

A mate burned a hdd from a PC that his son had given him (it came from
his sons work), or at least he tried to burn it (in amongst general
rubbish etc). He wasn't so keen he'd done so when I told him there was
no reason to have done that (unless it contained plans for a new
missile or somesuch and even then it was probably insufficient) and
that a good overwrite with something like DBAN (done from a boot CD
with a few keyboard taps) and then re-installing an OS again. Unless
someone comes to collect the re-furbished PC in a black helicopter I
don't think you should worry. ;-)

The de-rusting power supply is interesting but unlikely to happen as I
rely on the trusty angle grinder with a cup wheel brush.

Not so good for getting inside stuff but I'm not sure if there aren't
also issues with electrical re-rusting on anything that needs to
retain good mechanical strength. So, say you had some old iron farm
equipment you wanted to de-rust and then paint and put out as an
ornament, I'd go the electronic way every time (once you have a
suitable rig / tank, it's very easy and fun in a mad professor sorta
way). ;-)

Bits for R. Cott. is also interesting as I fully intended to pick your
brains:-)

Any time. ;-)

The spare routers are Technicolour TG582n PRO

https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/thomson/tg582n

and Thomson ST585 v6.

Not sure about that one.

Progress so far is to run cat6 cable here and there in
readiness.

A good start. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 11:57:55 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 04/01/18 11:16, Bill wrote:
In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
Ive got 4 now and all have had XP install wiped.

And new disks isntalled and now run Linux, faster than they ever ran
XP...

Sadly, just as it would be with Win10, this is not an option here, where
I need to support certain hardware and run certain programs.

At the moment, I'm struggling to revert to XP on a Mint laptop that
seems to have had its bios corrupted by a previous owner.

Legacy boot is what you use to get rid of Microsoft. YOu may need to
revert to UEFI to get windows to reinstall, thiugh why anyone would want
to...

Anyone who wants to make use of pretty well all the hardware, games,
applications out there?

Anyone who has a life and doesn't want to have to 'learn' to be a
Linux geek?

Anyone who doesn't have a tame Linux geek and then would need to find
one to get their machine (OS) fixed when it goes wrong.

Apart from them, no one. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On 04/01/18 08:53, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 03/01/2018 21:15, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I've got a few of these that were 'retired' when the current
(ex-corporate) Win10 boxes were installed in the home office.

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?
I'd like them to go to somewhere where they'll be used, but don't
particularly want my bank account emptied or my email hacked!

Install Eraser (https://eraser.heidi.ie/). That will work with XP if
it has SP3.

You can selectively erase files or folders - not just delete but
overwrite. I used to use this years ago when I used my XP machine for
confidential business work. I don't know if it still has it, but it
could also "erase" free disk space. This was useful to clean up old
disks where there was a large amount of "deleted" file data, which might
be restorable or partly recoverable with special utilities.

Of course, erasing a large amount of data will take quite a time. If
you've got a large HD drive, running to a couple of hundred MB or more,
you will need hours to wipe it securely.

--

Jeff

On 03/01/2018 21:42, T i m wrote:
On Wed, 03 Jan 2018 21:15:59 +0000, Tim Lamb wrote:

Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

;-)

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

It always seems a shame to disable an old PC like that when it's actually
working (assuming it is etc).

So, what I might be inclined to do is get a copy of DBAN and securely
wipe the drive (assuming you don't want what's on it etc), it's just a
couple of inputs and you leave it to do it's thing.

At that point you could stick it on Freecycle / Freegle and let them 1)
come and get it and 2) do what they want with it.

Or, get a copy of Linux Mint (MATE) if it's only got a basic graphics
solution and stick that on it (you could try it first from the LiveDVD)
and then give it away as a complete working solution. ;-)

If it runs and has a Microsoft OS and Office, it will be taken off your
hands in seconds if you put it on Freecycle/Gumtree (for free).

Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

JoeJoe posted
Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

I can wipe clean the HD, but I don't know how to wipe all the personal
data off while leaving the OS on. That would be a useful thing to know.

--
Jack

On 04/01/2018 17:20, Handsome Jack wrote:
JoeJoe posted
Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

I can wipe clean the HD, but I don't know how to wipe all the personal
data off while leaving the OS on. That would be a useful thing to know.

Yes - that was the original question.... g
Adrian

On 04/01/18 17:20, Handsome Jack wrote:
JoeJoe posted
Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

I can wipe clean the HD, but I don't know how to wipe all the personal
data off while leaving the OS on. That would be a useful thing to know.

Essentially you dont.

No one wants a 6 year old hard drive today anyway. It will be
undersized, slow and too small. And almost certainly totally unreliable.
The going rate for one is abouyt £3-5.

No one wants XP either, really.

Or the machines it runs on. Which is why whenever I need a box to
install linux on, I go to my PC dealer and blag a scapper. Trade ins
that are *just* too good to put in the bin. So they end up under the
bench instead. All win XP, all 64 bit, all with reasonable memory, but
all with useless disks.

Sometimes they are free, sometimes £40-£60. Cash in the coffee fund :-)

Cheaper than a raspberry pi...
Linux makes them quitre decent, but as XP machines they are worthless.

And the ONLY value of the disks is to maybe see if any secret info is
still on them

So take them out and trash them. Or leave them in and use a linux live
CD to wipe them totally clean, by writing all ones zeros or random crap
to the whole raw device, so it io completely irrecoverable to anyone
less than the NSA.

The machine has some value. XP and the disk? - not so much.



--
The lifetime of any political organisation is about three years before
its been subverted by the people it tried to warn you about.

Anon.

On 04/01/18 17:42, Huge wrote:
On 2018-01-04, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 04/01/18 08:53, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 03/01/2018 21:15, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I've got a few of these that were 'retired' when the current
(ex-corporate) Win10 boxes were installed in the home office.

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?
I'd like them to go to somewhere where they'll be used, but don't
particularly want my bank account emptied or my email hacked!

Install Eraser (https://eraser.heidi.ie/). That will work with XP if
it has SP3.

You can selectively erase files or folders - not just delete but
overwrite.

The problem isn't erasing files, it's knowing which files to erase. And
the *only* certain method is to DBAN (or equivalent) the disks. (And
if you're properly paranoid, to physically destroy them, but that's
a little OTT for a home user.)

Not really. a bench vice and an angle grinder..





--
"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They
always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them"

Margaret Thatcher

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Cheaper than a raspberry pi...
Linux makes them quitre decent, but as XP machines they are worthless.

Consume much more power than a Pi too though. Excellent as a test
machine or a spare desktop but more expensive than a Pi to run as an
always on server for instance.

--
Chris Green
·

Huge wrote:
On 2018-01-04, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 04/01/18 08:53, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 03/01/2018 21:15, Tim Lamb wrote:
Right! The old XP box has taken up space in our hall for too long. I am
told the space is needed for a row of wellington boots in readiness for
the next GC. visit!

I'll strip out the hard drive but are any of the other bits of interest?
Free to appreciative home:-) Memory cards?

There has been occasional mention of alternative uses for PC power
supplies. I stopped playing with electronic components around the time
TTL came along so nothing springs to my mind.


I've got a few of these that were 'retired' when the current
(ex-corporate) Win10 boxes were installed in the home office.

At the moment, the XP boxes are set up just as they were on the day they
were turned off - reasonably well-specced for 'office' machines,
decent-sized hard drives.

I think I know the answer g - but is there a reliable way of wiping
any confidential info (passwords etc) without removing the XP install..?
I'd like them to go to somewhere where they'll be used, but don't
particularly want my bank account emptied or my email hacked!

Install Eraser (https://eraser.heidi.ie/). That will work with XP if
it has SP3.

You can selectively erase files or folders - not just delete but
overwrite.

The problem isn't erasing files, it's knowing which files to erase. And
the *only* certain method is to DBAN (or equivalent) the disks. (And
if you're properly paranoid, to physically destroy them, but that's
a little OTT for a home user.)

"knowing which files to erase" is fairly straightforward on a sensible
OS, if you've kept it sensible, you erase /home. If you're really
worried you keep /home on a separate drive and destroy that leaving a
working system with just the OS on it.


The other way is to make sure that you don't store any sensitive
information on the disk drive to start with! Or at least if you do
make sure it's reasonably well encrypted.

I don't allow browsers (or whatever) to store *any* of my passwords.
For web sites where I really don't care if someone finds my password I
use a simple password generation algorithm that allows me to 'know'
the password when I log in. I keep important passwords in a properly
encrypted password store. I encrypt files I don't want strangers to
see.

OK, if GCHQ get my disks they can probably find some things out about
me that I didn't really want anyone to know, but I doubt very much if
my old computers will b of interest to GCHQ! :-)

--
Chris Green
·

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 16:44:50 +0000, JoeJoe wrote:

snip

If it runs and has a Microsoft OS and Office,

(or even Windows and Libre/Open Office)

it will be taken off your
hands in seconds if you put it on Freecycle/Gumtree (for free).

Agreed.

Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

Agreed.

I installed Linux on a couple of old PC's as an experiment for mate in
the PC shop and he actually sold one (£25). It wasn't long before it
came back because it wouldn't run his golf program. ;-(

The thing is, few people know what an OS is, let alone know the
difference between Windows and Linux, all they (learn to) care about
is that the kid next door can help them fix Windows and knows nothing
about Linux (along with most PC shops).

A few years ago now I installed Linux for my BIL and he uses that
mainly for his everyday needs. He still needs Windows (dual boot) for
those 'Windows only' programs and games and it's funny when I go there
and find all the Windows programs / installers he's downloaded and
finds won't run.

I went up there the other day and whilst there he asked me to explain
why the Linux updates wouldn't complete successfully. It gave a clue
to their being 'insufficient disk space' but he had 1.9G free on his
root partition? Because there were no friendly (/obvious) 'cleanup'
tools on Linux I had to roll my sleeves up and deleted about 20
obsolete linux-kernel files (using Synaptic), magically freeing up
enough space for the update to complete?

Cheers, T i m

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 19:06:16 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 04/01/18 17:42, Huge wrote:
snip

The problem isn't erasing files, it's knowing which files to erase. And
the *only* certain method is to DBAN (or equivalent) the disks. (And
if you're properly paranoid, to physically destroy them, but that's
a little OTT for a home user.)

Not really. a bench vice and an angle grinder..

Whoosh ...

Cheers, T i m

On 04/01/18 19:23, Chris Green wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Cheaper than a raspberry pi...
Linux makes them quitre decent, but as XP machines they are worthless.

Consume much more power than a Pi too though. Excellent as a test
machine or a spare desktop but more expensive than a Pi to run as an
always on server for instance.

Possibly. Its a bit like an aga. Once you stop thinking of it as a
cooker and think of it as an actually pretty efficient space heater that
you can cook on, it suddenly doesn't matter

This house here has vents to keep it dry. I have taped over them wityh
bits of paper, and te CH boiler seems about 30% less active.


Worrying about wheter or not trer is 50W of server in te cirber is not a
big issue


My cisco router is teh hottest thing in here anyway. must be about 50W..


--
Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 19:05:38 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 04/01/18 17:20, Handsome Jack wrote:
JoeJoe posted
Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

I can wipe clean the HD, but I don't know how to wipe all the personal
data off while leaving the OS on. That would be a useful thing to know.

Essentially you dont.

No one wants a 6 year old hard drive today anyway. It will be
undersized, slow and too small.

For what (usage)?

And almost certainly totally unreliable.

BS. The older drives seem to be more reliable than the newer ones.

The going rate for one is abouyt £3-5.

No one wants XP either, really.

Given the choice of XP or 'Linux', I'm not so sure.

Or the machines it runs on.

Which could be perfectly good (and possibly low usage) kit. I was
given an old XP laptop the other day that had about 100 hours on the
(original) drive.

Which is why whenever I need a box to
install linux on, I go to my PC dealer and blag a scapper. Trade ins
that are *just* too good to put in the bin. So they end up under the
bench instead. All win XP, all 64 bit, all with reasonable memory, but
all with useless disks.

Often with useable disks, enough memory to run XP ok (512MB) but not
enough to even install Linux.

Sometimes they are free, sometimes £40-£60. Cash in the coffee fund :-)

Or you can get them off Freecycle, if you are quick.

Cheaper than a raspberry pi...

Not if they are free they aren't (to use with XP that is).

Linux makes them quitre decent, but as XP machines they are worthless.

You got that A about F mate.

And the ONLY value of the disks is to maybe see if any secret info is
still on them

Or re-installing XP on them and just carrying on (as I am here on a
Mac Mini / XP).

So take them out and trash them. Or leave them in and use a linux live
CD to wipe them totally clean, by writing all ones zeros or random crap
to the whole raw device, so it io completely irrecoverable to anyone
less than the NSA.

Way to complicated for any 'ordinary user'. If they can download a
burn a copy of dban, they might stand a chance of booting and running
that.

The machine has some value. XP and the disk? - not so much.

The machine would generally have most value to ordinary people as a
fully working XP (not Linux) machine.

I have installed (dual boot) and later un-installed Linux enough times
that 'most people' won't or can't use it, unless their needs are
*very* basic and they don't mind the extra challenge and risk.

When we went to the inlaws recently he mentioned that his backup drive
didn't work (on Ubuntu). I asked him if had tried to use it as it was,
with the Clickfree dongle still connected in series to the external
USB drive. He said he had, so unplugged it and ran the backup utility
I'd setup for him previously.

On Windows XP/ W10, he just plugs the drive and dongle into the PC and
it does it all for him.

Cheers, T i m

On 04/01/2018 17:20, Handsome Jack wrote:
JoeJoe posted
Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

I can wipe clean the HD, but I don't know how to wipe all the personal
data off while leaving the OS on. That would be a useful thing to know.


Wipe it clean and re-install the OS.

In message , T i m
writes
On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 19:06:16 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 04/01/18 17:42, Huge wrote:
snip

The problem isn't erasing files, it's knowing which files to erase. And
the *only* certain method is to DBAN (or equivalent) the disks. (And
if you're properly paranoid, to physically destroy them, but that's
a little OTT for a home user.)

Not really. a bench vice and an angle grinder..

Whoosh ...

I wondered if mentioning computers would start a mega thread:-)

It is only 32 bit and had started being a bit careless about dragging
and dropping files. I'll move it to a dry barn to get over the immediate
problem.

--
Tim Lamb

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 04/01/18 19:23, Chris Green wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Cheaper than a raspberry pi...
Linux makes them quitre decent, but as XP machines they are worthless.

Consume much more power than a Pi too though. Excellent as a test
machine or a spare desktop but more expensive than a Pi to run as an
always on server for instance.

Possibly. Its a bit like an aga. Once you stop thinking of it as a
cooker and think of it as an actually pretty efficient space heater that
you can cook on, it suddenly doesn't matter

This house here has vents to keep it dry. I have taped over them wityh
bits of paper, and te CH boiler seems about 30% less active.


Worrying about wheter or not trer is 50W of server in te cirber is not a
big issue

True, but it's worth factoring in when deciding whether to re-use an
old system or buy a new one.

--
Chris Green
·

On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 20:39:22 +0000, Tim Lamb
wrote:

snip

I wondered if mentioning computers would start a mega thread:-)

Better than Brexit though eh. ;-)

It is only 32 bit and had started being a bit careless about dragging
and dropping files.

Did you know you can 'undo' those actions (if you realise you have
done something wrong). Because you can make such mistakes, I tend to
copy and paste then delete or cut and paste if I'm feeling confident.
;-)

I'll move it to a dry barn to get over the immediate
problem.

Is the right answer. There's bound to be an excuse for us to bring
something in or to enjoy some of that lovely home cooking again. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On Thursday, 4 January 2018 20:47:54 UTC, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , T i m
writes
On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 19:06:16 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 04/01/18 17:42, Huge wrote:
snip

The problem isn't erasing files, it's knowing which files to erase. And
the *only* certain method is to DBAN (or equivalent) the disks. (And
if you're properly paranoid, to physically destroy them, but that's
a little OTT for a home user.)

Not really. a bench vice and an angle grinder..

Whoosh ...

I wondered if mentioning computers would start a mega thread:-)

This have moved on we now talk about giga and tera so this could end up a tera thread.

Of course using such an old computer I;m guessing that secirity and the recent possible expliots won't be fixed on these old system so another reason not to use old hardware on-line at least.


It is only 32 bit and had started being a bit careless about dragging
and dropping files. I'll move it to a dry barn to get over the immediate
problem.

--
Tim Lamb

JoeJoe posted
On 04/01/2018 17:20, Handsome Jack wrote:
JoeJoe posted
Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly
wipe clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to
touch what's left.
I can wipe clean the HD, but I don't know how to wipe all the
personal data off while leaving the OS on. That would be a useful
thing to know.


Wipe it clean and re-install the OS.

I don't have an installation disk.

--
Jack

On Fri, 5 Jan 2018 15:38:08 +0000, Handsome Jack
wrote:

JoeJoe posted
On 04/01/2018 17:20, Handsome Jack wrote:
JoeJoe posted
Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly
wipe clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to
touch what's left.
I can wipe clean the HD, but I don't know how to wipe all the
personal data off while leaving the OS on. That would be a useful
thing to know.


Wipe it clean and re-install the OS.

I don't have an installation disk.

Easy to find on the interwebs? What do you need?

Cheers, T i m

On 04/01/2018 19:47, T i m wrote:

I went up there the other day and whilst there he asked me to explain
why the Linux updates wouldn't complete successfully. It gave a clue
to their being 'insufficient disk space' but he had 1.9G free on his
root partition? Because there were no friendly (/obvious) 'cleanup'
tools on Linux I had to roll my sleeves up and deleted about 20
obsolete linux-kernel files (using Synaptic), magically freeing up
enough space for the update to complete?

That was always my biggest issue. Oh, that and packages not updating
because some suppository had magically made it's self
illegal/invalid/duplicated/unknown or whatever with no clear way to
rectify the situation.

Why can't Linux have a simple option in the gear-wheelsy config
"desktop" bit that allows you to select number of kernel files kept e.g.
3 "roll-backs" as default ?

Needless to say I haven't booted up a Linux virtual box since the last
time it decided it needed peeking and poking or whatever to get it to
play nicely after it tried to update after a virgin install.
Still at least with virtual machines is easy to get rid of.