EricW Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 (edited) Heat is magnetism's mortal enemy. The only way to absolutely, positively destroy data is to incinerate the drive. You'll have to pull the platters to do this. You could use a torx driver...or my choice: 12 ga slugs. Edited July 25, 2007 by EricW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 If there's no chance I'll want the data anymore, and it's something I don't want other people to have, I'll disassemble the drive to get the magnets, which are entertaining in all sorts of ways (do try and avoid pinching the crap out of yourself with them), then pull the platters and have them visit Mr 3000 RPM wire-brush for a while. If you know somebody that's a metalworking freak and casts their own metal, they love to melt down hard drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 They don't let us bring guns to work, but we did have "cross bow day" a while back. Shooting arrows into phone books on the dock got old fast, so a few hard drives met their demise that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vrmn1 Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Lotsa crank. Oh wait this is about computers. Really if there is anything on it that you don't want others to see, DESTROY THE HARD DRIVE!!!!!!!!!! Take it out of the computer, rip it apart burn the dick scatter the ashes. and cover up with dirt. Soak it in acid do someting but make sure there is no 2 pieces of it can be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclez Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Is it really that easy for the average person to obtain data from an old harddrive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Is it really that easy for the average person to obtain data from an old harddrive? All it takes is money these days http://www.google.com/search?q=hard-drive+recovery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Is it really that easy for the average person to obtain data from an old harddrive? All it takes is money these days http://www.google.com/search?q=hard-drive+recovery And you'd have to have something on your drive that somebody wants REAL bad. Nobody is going to go to any lengthy measures to retrieve average Joe's pictures of his cat, Muffin. FWIW, when I retire my computers, I write a single pass of 0's across the entire drive (by placing it in another system), then install an OS with full format during install before I give it to Goodwill or whoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 12ga slugs are a really fun vs drives. When the platers get hit, the surface treatment peels off for inches around the impact site, which puts a nice lead covered hole through the whole mess, with lots of pastic deformation of the media. Fun Fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxtrotuniformlima Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 It seems that every time someone calls in on one of those talk radio shows that talks about computers with " My hard drive crashed with all my pictures" stories, the host always says - maybe someone can get them off but no guarantee. From what I read above, you all make it sound like a piece of cake. I'm in agreement with Akidale. Unless you have something on there that will land you in jail, just format the drive and use one of the recommended free utilities. And donate it to a church or some other reputable organization, not a thrift store or other group that will sell it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe4d Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 First expose to sunlight, then wrap it in garlic cloves, give it a few double taps with silver bullets, drive a stake through it , then bury it in hallowed ground on Easter Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBF Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 Take 30 rounds of .223 , and call me in the morning . Travis F. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 For me, once it's to the point the drive isn't worth using for anything... it's a 1/4" drill bit and the drill press.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentG Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 First use this...http://www.llnl.gov/linux/scrub/scrub.html The do: Remove hard drive and shred/chop into small peices.Digest/dissolve peices in strong acid. Neutralized and dispose of residual liquid. This worked for us at the nuke plant lab. That is real security... Ira I may not work for the gubment but I will NEVER let a hard drive of mine see the light of day. Last time I gave an old comp to a buddy for his kid to use I yanked the hard drive and crushed it in a vise and beat it with a 2 pound hammer untill there were many small pieces. Hard drives are not that expensive and the person/group you give it to can get one or find someone else to give them a computer. Better safe than sorry especially if you do banking, quicken and or taxes on your machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainmcphersn Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 http://ssiworld.com/watch/hard_drives.htm This looks effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 Yeh, the big commercial electronic recyclers use those grinders for just about everything. There are shredders like that for plastic items as well, with magnet sorters to cull out the leftover small metal bits. At our local electronic recycling center we first removed the HDD's circuit boards then boxed up the small, older ones and shipped them to people that had the big shredders. The larger capacity HDDs were sent thru the bench that had the dBan system and cleaned 'em up and then we re-used them in our refurb'd boxes, on which we loaded Win2000 (and later, XP) and certain other free wares (like Open Office and anti-badware programs)... then sold them in the retail outlet. We kept the not-yet-cleaned HDDs in locked safes overnight. We also routinely offered to RETURN the HDD to the donor who brought in the box, and sometimes they opted for that. It was surprising, though, how many donors didn't care too much what happened to their HDDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 How do microwaves affect hard drives? Mine mated with each other. I now have a 'fridge that lets me push a button to dispense the exact amount of ounces of water that I want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchW Posted August 9, 2007 Share Posted August 9, 2007 In my computer business I have to remove all hard drives run some program as mentioned already and then physically destroy the hard drive for all my military sub-contractors. But since you would like to give away the computer. Run defrag on your computer. Then use one of the programs above. If the hard drive is OVER 33 GB once swipe is all that is needed. Then use your restore CD if you have one and that will stop 99.999999999% of the best. If the hard drive is under 33 GB 3 times! Most information I find on computers in 'child porn' court cases are in the clusters that are not 100% overwritten by new files. Butch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrguar Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 Use google and look for a program called eraser. Load this bad boy up and let it overwrite your drive about 9 billion times, then let it erase. I am not sure but it used to meet the NSA's requirement for wiping drives... of course if the NSA will be looking at your old hardware you may want to just run it thru the eraser program, them take it to your local metal shop and have them drop it in one of their BIG press breaks...I used to have clients who were concerned about their DATA up until we handed their drives back to them in a baggy after a trip thru the 50 ton press break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMartin Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 There is an option on the format, government format. This will erase the data, then rewrite the drive with 1s and 0s, twice. It takes alittle time but works. rinse and repeat as necessary........ RPM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 Or try a Blendtec blender. After all it works on a iPhone thought it does release the black evil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vluc Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Cleaning used hard drives - Military style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadetree Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Cleaning used hard drives - Military style. heeeheeeeeheeeeee Close to what I was thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neomet Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 In the words of the always eloquent and insightful Bevis and Butthead: "Fire...Fire.....Fire!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrguar Posted November 3, 2007 Share Posted November 3, 2007 To protect our client data.. our policy is 1). Format;2). DEGAUSS (we have commercial degausser) and the coup de gras 3). run the drives thru a grinder under the watchfull eye of our security people. We just finished grinding enough drives that if we reclaimed all the steel & aluminum we could probably build a couple suv's... When it comes to protecting customer data.. we put the kill in OVERKILL... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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