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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I have quite a few and was wondering the proper disposal of these little treasures in history?
Thanks,
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Good question, Danny. For the HDs, you could either a) reformat them and use as extra storage, or, b) use a magnet to permanently damage the media and throw them away. For the DVDs, scratch them up real good and throw them into the trash. Silly, but that's what I would do 
Cheers, Mike My Music * Asus ROG Strix G15CF 32 GB DDR4 4TB HDD + 1 TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB Win 11 AKAI EIE PRO Sound Interface. BIAB/RB 2024 UltraPak Build - Latest
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Reformatting doesn't actually fully erase data in the sense that it can still be retrieved with effort and expense. In the case of a hard drive, they do make programs that do multiple levels of erase. Or, a 100% reliable method is to take an electric drill straight through the platters.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Reformatting doesn't actually fully erase data in the sense that it can still be retrieved with effort and expense. In the case of a hard drive, they do make programs that do multiple levels of erase. Or, a 100% reliable method is to take an electric drill straight through the platters.
I agree, Matt. I was just approaching it from the angle that reformatting would be okay if you yourself would want to keep the media as additional storage space. The drill is best if you want to throw them away, of course
Cheers, Mike My Music * Asus ROG Strix G15CF 32 GB DDR4 4TB HDD + 1 TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB Win 11 AKAI EIE PRO Sound Interface. BIAB/RB 2024 UltraPak Build - Latest
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Don't just throw them away. Take them to a electronic's recycling center. We have one 7 miles away in Brockport NY.
My boss calls me "the computer".
Nothing to do with intelligence. I go to sleep if left unattended for 15 minutes.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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A nine pound hammer.
Cheers,
Keith
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I agree with Mario. If you wish to dispose of them, do take them to a recycling center. Much better than ending up in landfill. And better for the environment too!
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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old dvds make wonderful bird scarers for boats to stop them s***ing onboard and for garden ponds in the uk to deter herons from eating goldfish and carp. glue two together with the silver side facing out and string fishing line through the holes.
they also make wonderful platters for mixing up small amounts of epoxy resin filler or adhesive!
Last edited by Bob Calver; 03/31/19 10:54 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Here in Pensacola, we have a "regional roundup" as they call it about every couple of months, where you can bring in old electronics (and other hazmat material) for recycling. Perhaps your locality has something similar.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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Yes, the word 'disposal' was used by the O/P in the subject heading so I guess that's what the intention is.
Recycle is better than landfill, any day. Erase the disk first if necessary, but please at least allow the item be recycled instead of dumped.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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i tend to use old biab drives for data backup, even getting one drive out of the USB case and put it internally in a laptop as 2nd one ..
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I reformat the drives and use them for storage too.
As far as CDs are concerned, I keep them way too long and eventually trash them. If they were recyclable I'd definitely do that.
Insights and incites by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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When working we used to destroy hard disk drives. We often used a disk “nuking” program that formatted the drive then wrote to the entire drive (and went through the process several times). I also would give them a good hard whack with a heavy hammer for good measure.
If we had a heap of drives to be done we’d nuke them using a electro magnetic process. We’d insert a heap of hard disks turn on the machine which hummed and buzzed making a frightful din but the drives were destroyed.
The drives were then put into a recycle bin.
For CDs we had a simple shredder that basically put holes into the back of the disks making unreadable. The CD was then broken. Note: it is the “painted” surface you destroy. Some paper shredders have a CD facility. I have seen folk gouge the front of a CD but that does nothing, it is the shiny stuff you want gone. (At home some were left hanging in the garden to scare birds).
For floppy disks or tapes (if you still have any) if they have not been stored in a good dry place they’re probably rusted to death by now. You can use a nuking program on floppies.
These were my experiences get shy of unwanted data.
Tony
HP i7-4770 16GB 1TB SSD, Win 10 Home,
Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen, Launchkey 61, Maton CW80, Telecaster, Ovation Elite TX, Yamaha Pacifica 612
BB 2022(912) RB 2022(2), CakeWalk, Reaper 6, Audacity, Melodyne 5 Editor, Izotope Music Production Suite 4.1
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Say I have an old CD copy of a discontinued software product. What good will it do to shred it? As afar as I'm concerned, not worth the effort. Now if it has my personal financial data on it, or the data of any of my customers, it gets totally destroyed. I would think that if you wanted to send one of the old BiaB hard drives to a recycling plant, using one of those apps that write pseudo-random ones and zeroes hundreds of times over would be sufficient. I've used this when giving away old computers. I have an app called "Eraser" and I use the maximum security options. https://eraser.heidi.ie/It's open source, free, and has a very good reputation with PC trade magazines. Insights and incites by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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One of my accounts is a electronic recycle biz and they have a wicked HDD shredder. I was given the demo of this beast and I mean it will flat shred a HDD. 
BIAB 2026 Ultrapack- Fender Studio Pro 8, Windows 11, Mac Mini M4 with Logic Pro 11, Melodyne Studio, Luna Pro
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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If there isn't a recycling center near you, you can look up ones on the internet that will allow you to mail disks in from anywhere in the country.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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OP
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Sorry my reply and of course gratitude for all the helpful answers are so late but I had a computer crash seconds after I asked the question. So a very belated thank you for all the suggestions, especially the funny ones!
Just FYI when I could not find a Nine Pound Hammer I decided to use them for file backups.
Again thanks for all the great suggestions.
Later,
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Back in the day I worked for some folks who were pretty up tight about their data. 99 times out of 100 they just took a dewalt drill to them. That's about foolproof The only thing that passed muster with them for re-using a drive was Dereks boot and Nuke https://dban.org/Though not 100% guaranteed it works in the practical world, especially if you're trying to keep stuff out of the landfill. While those PG drives are relatively small, and spinning (vice ssd) they are not without use to some folks. Perhaps We could send all our old ones back to PG music for Re-use?. I must have a half dozen of them. Some might even pay the postage. Or perhaps Pg might pony up the postage.
biab2025(Mac) Latest Build
Mac OS (Latest)
Apple Mac Mini M2 pro 32GB Ram
Logic Pro 11.2.2
Irwin Vice Grip Fencing Pliers
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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...Perhaps We could send all our old ones back to PG music for Re-use?. Deryk helped me out once with a sent in drive for a particular reason; but he sent me an other one in exchange, probably as putting new data on an old drive is just to much work and time consuming. The good thing was i did not have to pay import taxes once again over already paid for the same RT's that way from earlier years. But i would like to see some download system for the NEW (larger AP) data. Probably only do-able if you have a fast internet connection and a torrent sharing peer to peer thing running; can be risky towards PGmusic as hackers might join the fun ...
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