Ask Rick: how do I safely dispose of old laptop? I have an old laptop, which is not worth repairing and which I intend to throw away but I was proposing to remove the hard drive and use it as a backup to my new laptop. Having removed the hard disk from the old laptop are there any further security issues that I need to be aware of before I take it to the tip? Peter Wooler, by email All of your personal and private data is on the hard drive and once that is removed all that remains is a box of anonymous hardware. Check that you haven't left any discs in the CD/DVD drive and removed any memory cards, and make sure it goes into the appropriate container for recycling electrical goods, rather than the one for general rubbish or landfill.