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This article was excerpted from: Buying a Computer for Dummies: 2006

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Used computers have little or no value. If you wait four or five years or longer, the new stuff is so much better that you never can recover any value from your original purchase.

What are your options?

If you do try to sell your computer, ask only $50 to $100 for it; use a higher price if it's a recent system, but don't expect to walk away with a profit. Sell everything that comes with the computer when you sell. Make the computer system as complete as you can. You can throw in software too, although that doesn't add to the price of the computer. (Old software has no value.)

Ask for either cash (because it won't be that much) or a cashier's check for your old computer. The last insult you want is to sell something you paid $2,000 for to a guy who writes you a rubber check.

A better thing to do with your old computers is to donate them to charities or private schools. Give them as much computer as you can, including a printer. Give them your software manuals and discs. And, ask for a receipt based on the computer's fair market value (see an accountant for more information). You get more from the computer that way, as a tax deduction, and you give something back to your community.

What about the hard drive and personal data?

When you get rid of your old computer, don't get rid of your personal data as well! The most secure thing to do is keep the hard drive. Offer your used system without a hard drive, or, if you really want it to sell, buy a replacement hard drive for the computer. That's the safest way to ensure that your data doesn't get abused. (Companies that are serious about security remove hard drives from their old computers and have those drives physically destroyed.)

If physically removing the hard drive isn't practical, you can use software that "bulk-erases" the disk. This type of program comes with Norton Utilities (or Norton SystemWorks). It's called Wipe Disk. Use it to utterly erase everything on your PC's hard drive so that none of your personal information is sold with your computer.

Other programs that can erase your hard drive include OnTrack's DataEraser and Jetico's BCWipe.

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