[SOLVED] Old online schooling laptop can I take the 500GB HDD out and format it?

[jayplzno]

Hey a few years ago i was in online schooling and they mailed me a laptop, i left the school and they didn't ask for it back, i found it in my garage, its been turned off for the past 3 ish years, i opened it up and took out nthe wifi chip, the 500gb hdd out and the single stick of laptop ram, i want to format and wipe the hdd but im worried if i take the hard drive out of my personal system and put that one in it will idk send out a distress signal and then they will find me and fine me for keeping the laptop. what do i do? do i unplug my personal hdd in my personal laptop and put in the school one and wipe it, or do i go on amazon and buy a sata to usb cable and wipe it without using it as a boot drive to format it?

 

[white.a.drew]

Hey a few years ago i was in online schooling and they mailed me a laptop, i left the school and they didn't ask for it back, i found it in my garage, its been turned off for the past 3 ish years, i opened it up and took out nthe wifi chip, the 500gb hdd out and the single stick of laptop ram, i want to format and wipe the hdd but im worried if i take the hard drive out of my personal system and put that one in it will idk send out a distress signal and then they will find me and fine me for keeping the laptop. what do i do? do i unplug my personal hdd in my personal laptop and put in the school one and wipe it, or do i go on amazon and buy a sata to usb cable and wipe it without using it as a boot drive to format it?

Disconnect your system from any source of internet before you plug the drive in and then wipe it.

 

[TheJoker2020]

You will want this or something like this for the drive, once in the caddy you can do what you want with it including simply using it as a backup hard drive.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ORICO-Tool-free-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B08GP5MJLV

If you want to sell the drive (not always straightforward) you can do so once you have destroyed the data, formatting the drive is like removing the index from a book, it makes it more difficult to find something as you have to read the whole book, but that is exactly what data recovery software does, so you will need to use some data destruction software.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=free+data+destruction+software&t=chromentp&ia=web

As for the legality of this, I do not know and give no opinion or advice, check that yourself.

Can the hard drive be tracked by the software on it, not exactly. If the drive is in the laptop and has software on it for that purpose, possibly, although this has happened before it is illegal almost everywhere, but destroying the data on the drive will fix that, or if you want to use it as a backup drive, simply formatting it and using it will also do that.

Good luck.

 

[jayplzno]

Disconnect your system from any source of internet before you plug the drive in and then wipe it.

okay but i dont have a ssd or anything in my personal laptop, all i have is a hard drive, should i still switch them out even though the personal drive has my OS and everything?

 

[TheJoker2020]

okay but i dont have a ssd or anything in my personal laptop, all i have is a hard drive, should i still switch them out even though the personal drive has my OS and everything?

I wouldn't recommend doing anything with the drive in your laptop before making sure that you have a current backup of your data, butter fingers or simply mishandling the drive could destroy it.

 

[Bob.B]

okay but i dont have a ssd or anything in my personal laptop, all i have is a hard drive, should i still switch them out even though the personal drive has my OS and everything?

Don't do anything inside your laptop.
Get an enclosure....like mentioned above or a usb>sata cable.
Plug it into a usb port and play.

 

[jayplzno]

You will want this or something like this for the drive, once in the caddy you can do what you want with it including simply using it as a backup hard drive.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ORICO-Tool-free-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B08GP5MJLV

If you want to sell the drive (not always straightforward) you can do so once you have destroyed the data, formatting the drive is like removing the index from a book, it makes it more difficult to find something as you have to read the whole book, but that is exactly what data recovery software does, so you will need to use some data destruction software.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=free+data+destruction+software&t=chromentp&ia=web

As for the legality of this, I do not know and give no opinion or advice, check that yourself.

Can the hard drive be tracked by the software on it, not exactly. If the drive is in the laptop and has software on it for that purpose, possibly, although this has happened before it is illegal almost everywhere, but destroying the data on the drive will fix that, or if you want to use it as a backup drive, simply formatting it and using it will also do that.

Good luck.

i bought a sata lll to usb 3.0 cord on amazon and ill use it when it gets here to wipe the drive. is that the right move? heres the cable btw https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_2BC5J9CKGDFCJT9R9TH9

 

[jayplzno]

Don't do anything inside your laptop.
Get an enclosure....like mentioned above or a usb>sata cable.
Plug it into a usb port and play.

i bought a sata lll to usb 3.0 cord on amazon and ill use it when it gets here to wipe the drive. is that the right move? heres the cable btw https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_2BC5J9CKGDFCJT9R9TH9

 

[Bob.B]

i bought a sata lll to usb 3.0 cord on amazon and ill use it when it gets here to wipe the drive. is that the right move? heres the cable btw https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_2BC5J9CKGDFCJT9R9TH9

That should work.

 

[jayplzno]

That should work.

so i just plug it in via usb and then format it and then im good? just do it the same way you would a usb drive?

 

[white.a.drew]

i bought a sata lll to usb 3.0 cord on amazon and ill use it when it gets here to wipe the drive. is that the right move? heres the cable btw https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_2BC5J9CKGDFCJT9R9TH9

yes with the system powered off plug the hdd from the i dont know if it's hotplug able if not it can damage it if the systems on and you plug it in. Then power the system on... "BE SURE BEFORE the system is powered off you disconnected from all internet sources if you are worried about the drive "Phoning home in word"" after the drive is formated there should be nothing left for it to be able to do anything and safe to connect to internet again

 

[jayplzno]

yes with the system powered off plug the hdd from the i dont know if it's hotplug able if not it can damage it if the systems on and you plug it in. Then power the system on... "BE SURE BEFORE the system is powered off you disconnected from all internet sources if you are worried about the drive "Phoning home in word"" after the drive is formated there should be nothing left for it to be able to do anything and safe to connect to internet again

alright thank you all!

 

[Bob.B]

so i just plug it in via usb and then format it and then im good? just do it the same way you would a usb drive?

Yes