Greg Lamb wrote an interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor that should make all of us stop and think before selling or recycling a computer. In a recent research project, the research team bought 300 used machines from several sources including ebay. They found that about one-third of them still contained personal or business data on the hard drives. This was even true of computers recycled by large corporations, hospitals, anhd government service providers.
The biggest mistake that we can make is to assume that all the files are gone on the hard drive once they’re put in the trash bin and deleted. The truth is that the “actual data remains intact on the hard drive. There are programs designed to find this data and easily recreate the original information.”
To really erase all the data from a hard drive, you have two choices
- Totally destroy the hard rvie with a hammer
- Using software
Two things that don’t work are formatting or partitioning the hard drive which just moves the data around even though Windows warns you that it will be erased. “There are several free programs that will do a good job of erasing a hard drive,” the article continues. One is an open-source program at www.dban.org. Two programs that can be purchased are DriveScrubber and Lavasoft’s FileShredder.
Identity thief is more prevalent than ever. You can help prevent theft of your information by taking the necessary precautions before you sell or recycle that old computer.
When I started this blog, I said that periodically I would be featuring other businesses whose owners are Creative Entrepreneurs. The first in this series is Creative Idea Shop, located in Southern California, and its owner Susan Placek.
Beginning with a series of custom covers for packages of miscrowave popcorn covers (she now has over 200 designs to choose from and can create your own custom design) in 2006, she has added mouse pads, calendars, and a series that she calls “small treasures”. Her newest addition “goody purses” are truly unique and different and makes a marketing tool or addition to your gift basket that will be “oooed and ahhhed” over. If you do regional gift baskets or want something really different to market your local area, her state/regional themed vintage postcard popcorn covers are perfect.
Take a look at all those Boxco gift boxes that you have on your shelves. Put on that Creative Entrepreneur thinking cap and think of other new and exciting uses for them. In other words, think outside the box!”
This little bit of wisdom has been forgotten as greed has overtaken and passed intregrity in just about every industry in the world, including our own. Bad mortgage deals, homes that are beyond one’s affordability, and greedy bank CEO’s and regulators have toppled the banking world. Failure to remember this industrailist’s advice has permitted foreign automobiles to be preferred over ones made in the US. But they are not alone. 
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