E-Waste station at your local Council's land fill/recycle shop m.... usually free.

Thank you.

Is this a secure way to dispose of my laptop? Not tech enough to properly delete stuff.

Google how to create a bootable linux USB, and then use dd to wipe the drive.

Otherwise, just take the HDD out and send the rest to landfill.

Take the hard disk drives out and drill holes in them should do the trick.

Depending on where you are, someone from GZ might be able to help you wipe them, and depending on how old they are, they might be of use to a charity, or a recycler that contributes to charity.

I'm in Kapiti/Wellington and if you are anywhere near I'm happy to help you wipe and dispose of them.

@YvonneW … I too am in Wellington city so if you are located nearby I'd be happy to "clean" the drives of any personal data.

Thank you for the offers. I am in South Auckland.

I like the idea of helping out a charity if I could.

There are two places in Wellington with "disk shredders" that will, in exchange for some cash, convert your hard drive or SSD into tiny pieces of metallic confetti.

These are ITRecycla in Lower Hutt and RemarkIT in Grenada North.

• ITRecycla is an "Approved Secure Destruction" facility, with GCSB endorsement for destroying government equipment up to at least SECRET classification. So they absolutely, positively destroy it!
• RemarkIT may well be just as good, but the GCSB have not (yet?) endorsed them

There are no other GCSB-endorsed facilities in NZ, unless they've endorsed one in the last two weeks

Assuming the OP doesn't possess anything rated Secret or higher, physical destruction is pretty overkill. NZISM allows for drives containing anything less than Secret material to be sanitised by overwriting. Sanitisation allows allows for reuse, be it for profit or charity, and I'd think is always preferable to physical destruction.

YvonneW:

 

Thank you for the offers. I am in South Auckland.

 

I like the idea of helping out a charity if I could.

 

Hi YvonneW

Like Lias & Rickles, I am happy to help wipe the drive. Plus I live in Auckland East.

• DIY

   

  • You generally need a USB drive with enough disk space to hold the ISO file(s) of the OS that you want to run. For utility ISO's, these are generally <1GB, for newer Linux OS and Windows ISO's, this would be 3-8GB.
  • You'll need a tool to make the USB drive bootable. I generally use YUMI from pendrivelinux.com
  • You'll need the ISO of your selected OS. Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) is generally a good choice. 1GB flash drive is enough
  • You'll need time. Lots of it. Actually, the computer will. Every bit on the HDD will have to be written to, multiple times, generally 3-7. The larger the HDD, the more bits to write. So make sure it can operate out of your way.
  • Take PC to recycling shop

     

    • Computer Recycling, Onehunga, 09-525 5518
    • Ewaste, see schedule for locations
    •  
• Pay somebody else

   

  • TiMG
  • Electronic Recycling NZ
  • GoRecycle
  • IT Recycla 0800 3342 8773
  • Others (via Google)

If your PC is 5-10yrs old, then you could consider a charity. I don't know of any without some on-line search. IMO, if the PC is older than 10yrs, I think you are inflicting more pain on the charity than they need.

Send me a DM if you would like some more help.

Disclaimer: I think I once volunteered for Ewaste and I did drop off old equipment at Computer Recycling, even though I did not interact with anybody.

Edit: Added IT Recycla & disclaimer.

Lias:

 

Assuming the OP doesn't possess anything rated Secret or higher, physical destruction is pretty overkill. NZISM allows for drives containing anything less than Secret material to be sanitised by overwriting. Sanitisation allows allows for reuse, be it for profit or charity, and I'd think is always preferable to physical destruction.

 

I believe Lias is referring to section 13.4.12.C.01, although you might want to start reading from 13.4 of the NZ Information Security Manual.

IcI:
I believe Lias is referring to section 13.4.12.C.01, although you might want to start reading from 13.4 of the NZ Information Security Manual.

Sadist!

I guess at least you're not recommending reading the Protective Security Requirements 
At least the NZISM is printable and versioned

One of the real delights of being retired is that I don't have to deal with either anymore