Saturday, January 28, 2012

Thing #101: Floppy Drive

Thing #101: Floppy Drive

One of the many items I yanked out of my old PC. I definitely did not get a floppy drive for the new one, so this is effectively one fewer thing I own. I found one single floppy disk to test it with, but I couldn't get it to read the disk. So, I'm not sure this even works. (I'll get rid of the floppy disk separately, once I figure out what's actually on there.)

Anyway, I'm really using this as a surrogate post for downsizing my total PC components. In all, I recycled:

  • power supply

  • motherboard/cpu/heatsink

  • DVD drive

  • CD-RW drive

  • floppy drive

  • 40GB hard disk

  • 30GB hard disk

  • miscellaneous IDE cables


(I already gave away the two RAM chips, to upgrade the total memory on Sarah's desktop PC. And I'm keeping the old case, for now.)

The new PC has a single DVD-RW drive, a single hard drive, and no separate graphics card; I've reduced the total components by four (including the floppy drive). It may not seem meaningful since they all lived inside the computer case, anyway, but since I kept boxes, manuals, etc., it does make a significant difference. (Those were recycled, too.)

To get rid of all this stuff, I checked around for various tech recycling options. What I ended up doing was going through Office Depot's Tech Recycling Services: you buy a specific cardboard box, fill it up, then bring it back and they ship all your stuff off to a facility that does clean recycling. (The link above takes you directly to the info about the program, including a video demonstrating what happens to the e-waste.)

I picked Office Depot because there's one about a mile from my apartment and I don't have a car. My stuff all fit in the "small" box, which cost $5. Best Buy would have taken this for free, but it would have been $4.50 in bus fare to get there, so I just picked the closer option.

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