Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Whats On Your Hard Disk

R E Cycler | 19.06.2007 20:24

The trend for recycling has given the oppurtunity to the poor for high end computers.But whats on the hard disks?

Since 1995 I have been re-cycling computers from all kinds of places.I began with going to a car boot sale in the car park of a closing down hospital.I noticed a building in the grounds with a sign saying-"medical books for sale".And there were.But i also noticed a stack of computers.I asked about them.They were surprised anyone would be interested,remember this was 1995 and old stuff was 286 and old apple.I was introduced to the "caretaker".He had much more to show me.He had a better class of out of service machines.I say out of service.Not out of use.These were top of the range at the time 486 co-pros.I knew what they were.But our caretaker friend was an Apple man.So he had no idea.I bought 22 computers for 19 quid,it was 20 but after the boot i only had 19.So i take them and start to look at them.No ones medical records were deleted.I had.I had 44 hard drives with 20 os and 20 databases of names and addresses.If only i knew then what i know now.I wanted to make my profit,and i am not a rich man.I wanted just to have some good cash for once.So i did an unconditional format with the forward slash u..Telling myself,i remember it well -this is stuff that needs deleting.Peoples medical records should not be available to anyone but their doctor.Though my real motive was money,I openly confess to that.Now i kinow i could have sold them to a national newspaper for thousands then.Now i would not do that.So theres a turnup for if i knew then what i know now.But i would have shown the people involved,with some media they had agreed for publicity purpose what was on them.
Thats not the end of the story of the recycling of hard disks.
I continued in this new and ,not over profitable occupation for some more years.And i found more sources of them.One was the local skips.For some reason,known only to those who dump them.A lot of people dump nearly new pc's.When i first cottoned on to this those working in such places had no re-cycling proceedure.So i was on a boom time.Then they noticed that i took them and took the time to see why.So i had to pay a small,illegal fee.That was even better.I now had them making sure all pc stuff was put to one side.So i got the lot,anything in the crusher was pulled out for me.And i never ever once said a word.
Then one day i got some stuff from them with some software abandonned by ............police.with some papers in .txt form saying why."Too complicated for officers to understand".Being a nosey swine i could not resist looking.I won't name the company,and they were good at there job,joe plod was'nt.
But it was forensic recovery software.It was actually very simple to use.But at the time,in my area not many had pc's never mind being savvy.I think i put more cheap computers about than any aid agency.(sorry bout that ownsong)Naturally i began to use said software on all the computers i got that day.Stupid of them to throw away the pc with the software on it.But they were not stupid enough to throw away the machine with any results,or attempts..Then on one hard disk i came across some realy nasty stuff.It was impossible for me to connect the computer to anyone.So i began to use it on all of the hard disks of the computers i still had.I had about 350 disks.I found the same or similar stuff on about 21 disks.I had no way of looking back to dates or times.Maybe this is why people throw away what are fairly new pc's.
I still ocationally go and get some.Now it's pentium 4's.Yes with top of the range graphic cards,in the skip.But i don't even bother to unformat the drives.I just boot and nuke them,the best thing. and sell em on at a price your average unemployed single mum with a demanding 10 year old for a fast games computer can pay.60 quid.

R E Cycler

Comments

Display the following 5 comments

  1. Very cool because with this — I'm gobsmacked
  2. No — R E Cycler
  3. lets hear it for the kids — jammy
  4. Will you share, Recycler? — Bon^Chance
  5. Jammy. Bon Chance. — R E Cycler
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech