Dell laptop - what's it worth?

[robert.saunders]

I have a DELL laptop Inspiron 6400, 15.4" monitor.

Specs:

Windows Vista Business
Intel Pentium DualCore T2130 @ 1.86GHz
2038MB RAM
120GB Hard drive

It's a couple of years old, tiny bit of wear n tear on side of mouse pad etc, but in good condition, battery life still reasonable...

I was thinking of selling it - any ideas what I should expect for it?

 

[masqueraid]

Right now anything between £100-£500
Check out that well know online auction house for "Completed listings" i.e. those that actually sold rather than people having a "punt".

 

[popuptoaster]

Not much, with all the cheap £199 (or even "free") laptops available with phone deals and what not, second hand laptops which obviously come with no warranty have lost a lot of value as most people dont care about the tech specs as long as they can get online and do emails and a bit letter writing or homework on em, check ebay for stuff with similar specs to yours to see what they make and that'll give you a clue.

 

[crockers]

If you do sell it all your personal data can be retrieved unless you delete it properly ....I do believe even reformatting the disc doesn't delete it fully.

 

[grober]

£50-£100 ish

 

[robert.saunders]

I thought up to £150 to be honest, I've been given a new Dell mini notebook 12" which is enough for me and all I use it for (I already have a tower pc elsewhere) so really the Inspiron is a bit redundant

 

[st4]

Try eBaying it. Electricals depreciate even faster than high powered cars so don't expect a lot for it. I would be tempted but have a working PC with a couple of years left in the old girl - I thought of making you an offer but it would be less than you're after

 

[BTB 500]

I give old PCs to a local special needs school - with the low cost of new ones it's not worth the time & hassle of trying to sell them IMO.

Last couple of work laptops I've had, I've removed the hard drive and flattened it with a club hammer ... then taken the lot to the tip. As mentioned, if there's anything remotely sensitive or confidential stored on there you need to know exactly what you're doing if you try to clear down the hard disk yourself before selling.

 

[popuptoaster]

If you repartition the drive and then format it before reinstalling the OS its next to impossible to retrieve data, and a lot cheaper than flatening the drive and buying a new one.

 

[oldcro]

If you repartition the drive and then format it before reinstalling the OS its next to impossible to retrieve data, and a lot cheaper than flatening the drive and buying a new one.

Sorry, you're wrong. With the right equipment retrieving the data is easy following your advice.

If very sensitive data is installed on a hard disc you have 2 options.

1. Overwrite the whole disc a minimum of 20 times.

2. Destroy the disc completely, like throwing it into a furnace.

 

[masqueraid]

oldcro is correct - however this is quite useful when you want to erase everythnig : http://www.dban.org/

 

[The G.F.P]

£50

i bought 2 new ones this month for £300 & £500 and the £300 was quiet alot better

2nd hand electronics are usually not worth much

 

[fuzzer]

Sorry, you're wrong. With the right equipment retrieving the data is easy following your advice.

If very sensitive data is installed on a hard disc you have 2 options.

1. Overwrite the whole disc a minimum of 20 times.

2. Destroy the disc completely, like throwing it into a furnace.

i bet i could still get data back from charred platters

Only way to be sure no one will be able to get any data is to either keep it in a safe for ever and ever and ever or cut it up into tiny pieces and sprinkle it over a large area.

 

[st4]

i bet i could still get data back from charred platters

Only way to be sure no one will be able to get any data is to either keep it in a safe for ever and ever and ever or cut it up into tiny pieces and sprinkle it over a large area.

How easy is it to recover data from a formatted disc. I recently formatted my HDs and am curious how easy would it be to recover what was there before?

 

[whizzkid11]

Sorry, you're wrong. With the right equipment retrieving the data is easy following your advice.

If very sensitive data is installed on a hard disc you have 2 options.

1. Overwrite the whole disc a minimum of 20 times.

2. Destroy the disc completely, like throwing it into a furnace.

MOD hard drives are used in runways!!

 

[Dieselman]

How easy is it to recover data from a formatted disc. I recently formatted my HDs and am curious how easy would it be to recover what was there before?

All the information is still there, just the file system doesn't know where it is anymore.
A decent disk reader will find it all though.

After an F disk (or similar) and format then a waft with a strong magnet I would've thought it would be pretty irretrivable.

 

[rag1873]

I have a DELL laptop Inspiron 6400, 15.4" monitor.

Specs:

Windows Vista Business
Intel Pentium DualCore T2130 @ 1.86GHz
2038MB RAM
120GB Hard drive

It's a couple of years old, tiny bit of wear n tear on side of mouse pad etc, but in good condition, battery life still reasonable...

I was thinking of selling it - any ideas what I should expect for it?

Im on the lookout for a 2nd hand cheap laptop. How much would you want for it?

 

[crockers]

Im on the lookout for a 2nd hand cheap laptop. How much would you want for it?

You're just after his address book....

 

[rag1873]

You're just after his address book....

Im just after a cheap laptop! The screen is bust on mine so its plugged into a computer monitor so its not exactly a laptop now more of a desk top computer!!!

 

[robert.saunders]

Hiya, thanks for the offers but I have decided to keep it. My other half will use it and it'll be a useful standby PC