8antithesis8

This is about an old computer I used to own...

It got so eaten up by viruses and spyware that it would only start up (and very slowly) about 1/500, literally, just after I'd enter my username/password. So we threw it out.

Before I threw it out, however, I decided to cut up all of the wires to the point where it wouldn't power up anymore , but I didn't do anything to the little RAM/Memory card (don't know the correct term for it).

But, yes, the computer was heavily damaged. Then my dad went out and sat it outside the trash can "in case someone else wanted it"

I didn't do anything about it after that. I'm just wondering, if some nut did go and take my dead computer, could they successfully 'fix it' or recover all of my data that was on there?

~Thanks!

Droogie

if you left the hard-drive, than it wouldn't be difficult at all to get data from it. all they would have to do is take the hard-drive out of your computer and hook it up to theirs.

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formerly tknick90

[Asus P5N-D] [Q6700] [9800 GTX] [4GB DDR2 800] [Antec 900] [Windows 7 Professional]

The_Other_One

My computer forensics teacher said the best way to destory data on a hard drive is to take it out back and shoot it I'd remove the hard drive if nothing else.

But geeze...you're just throwing it out? I wish I lived near you and I'd come pick it up I'm sure there's plenty of good parts in it for something.

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8antithesis8

O.O -Really? So all of the terrible viruses it had wouldn't affect the hard drive at all? I thought the viruses it had made it stop working!

And if someone did take my hard drive and hook it up to their computer, wouldn't the virus(es) still act the same way?


Jeesh...guess I messed up throwing that piece of **** out...

diduknowthat

Viruses don't destroy computers, just the operating system. You could have easily reinstalled Windows and the computer would have been good as new. As for recovering data, someone should be able to plug your hard drive into their computer and take your files, the virus shouldn't affect them too much.

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The_Other_One

Yeah... It's VERY rare that viruses affect hardware. Probably the most typical case would be the virus would case the computer to overheat, or cause the hard drive to fail prematurely due to excessive activity. Aside from that, it's all software.

You're not in NC, are you?

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Primary- i7 920 | 6GB RAM | 9800GT | 160+160+500GB
Secondary- Athlon X2 4200 | 2GB RAM | 7600GT | 80+250GB
Netbook - Atom N280 | 2GB RAM | GMA945| 160GB