What can I do with an old laptop?

Wipe it and donate it to a homeless or battered women’s shelter.

If you had sensitive information on it I would drive a nail through the hard drive and e waste it.

A friend who is an expert recommends I remove the hard drive and then donate it.

I agree with your friend. The hard drive is easy to remove.

It is easy to remove the hard drive, then I e-recycle the rest. I smash up the hard drive and dump it.

You can probably still get a replacement battery, load Linux and use it as a regular internet driver/media machine for another five years or so.

I think it is an excellent idea to give your old computer to a company who reconditions them and gives them to someone in need such as a school child who can’t afford one for themselves. It will help them with their schoolwork etc.

Remember that simply formatting your hard drive will appear to clear everything but in fact it is only clear on the face of it and all your data can be recovered with the right software.

I would advice you to research software which will completely clean the drive before you part with your computer.