Side Street Technology Blog

You might be surprised how old a laptop can be to still have some value.  Many times older used laptops are used for parts for business who are wishing to extend their investment in their current fleet of laptops.  In other situations, an older laptop works just fine for businessman who needs a portable device for word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, and occasional Internet surfing.  Last, an older model used laptop may be of value to someone in another country where technology is not as prevalent.  Of course, the value is also determined by other factors such as the used laptop brand.  At Side Street Technology, we purchase laptops as far back as Pentium II models!

At Side Street Technology, we work with you to ensure your data wiping standards are met and your company’s intellectual capital will not be compromised on your used laptops.

Our standard method is to simply reformat and reimage the disk with a new install of Microsoft Windows or other operating systems.  For most companies, this method is sufficient and allows the unit to be sold without your data.

For companies that want a more secure method on their used laptops, a data wipe is necessary.  To put it in simple terms, a data wipe writes 1 and/or 0s over the entire disk.  Our first option is to offer a single pass.  However, if you a single pass of 1s and/or 0s has been completed, real hackers can still obtain your data because the information is still magnetized on the drive. For customers, that need a more secure data wipe, multiple passes of 1s and/or 0s can be made on the disk.  The US Department of Defense (DOD) recommends either 3 times or 7 times, or even the Gutmann recommendation of 35 times.  To reach this number of data wipe passes is quite time consuming and expensive.  At  Side Street Technology, we typically offer a 1 pass data wipe if necessary for your used laptops.

Are you interested in selling your used laptops, but concerned someone will obtain your sensitive data?  This is a common concern and there are a few options.  First, you can choose to re-image or wipe the used laptops yourself.  If you do not have the time to clean the used laptop harddrive, you can ask the vendor to do it.  At Side Street Technology, all operational used laptops are re-imaged with a new OS.  Additionally, for parts units or upon request for operational units, Side Street Technology will wipe your used laptop harddirves with a one pass of 1s and 0s over the entire disk.  Certificates are provided if needed for your audit records and confirm that the used laptop harddrives have been wiped.  Last, you company has the option to pull the used laptop harddrives and have them shredded at a recycle company.  Your used laptops may still have value even without the harddrives.