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How to destroy / disable old hard drives ?

fasteddie

By fasteddie,
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shawnhu Newbie

shawnhu

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I am surprised how heavy the hard drives are for their size . Maybe when my stomach heals from my operation I can give the sledge hammer a workout . I just didn't trust any company that would recycle computers to have any hard drives .

What do you think they do with the computers they recycle?

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grampy
grampy

In killing a hard drive, what would be the best bullet choice? Solid, bonded or bullistic tip?

nyslowhand
nyslowhand

Ask Hilary...!?! Opps, did I say that....

WNYBuckHunter
WNYBuckHunter

A flash drive, yes, RAM, no. You need power to hold data in a RAM module. Turn the power off, and it might be there for milliseconds.

Elmo Rookie

Elmo

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Seriously though. I leave mine on the side of the house for a few months. Let the rain take care of it.

Rain isn't going to do much to it. The data is still there.

But most people simply over panic about it. It up to $2000-3000 to recover all data from a broken hard drive. No one is going to drop that kind of money just to see if you MAY have something on that hard drive unless you're a valued target like a CEO, a terrorist leader, or a celebrity.

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Elmo Rookie

Elmo

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I put it in a small metal box, pour molten steel into it. Close up the box. Then I buy a portable hole and a rocket from Acme Inc. Make sure you get from Wile-E and not Bugs. Drop box into the hole. Peal the hole from the floor, fold it up and lock it into a second metal box. Attach this box to the rocket. Shoot the rocket towards Mars. Marvin the Martian will then blast the rocket into smithereens with his laser.

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ants Newbie

ants

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I put it in a small metal box, pour molten steel into it. Close up the box. Then I buy a portable hole and a rocket from Acme Inc. Make sure you get from Wile-E and not Bugs. Drop box into the hole. Peal the hole from the floor, fold it up and lock it into a second metal box. Attach this box to the rocket. Shoot the rocket towards Mars. Marvin the Martian will then blast the rocket into smithereens with his laser.

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Your method doesn't have any ropes and pulleys involved..It will never work.

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Five Seasons Grand Master

Five Seasons

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download a free program called cc cleaner. it's great for cleaning up junk on your computer, deleting cookies and what not. There's also an option to write quick or up to 2 passes over your free space. Basically jibberish. After that a few bullets or a fire if you're really that concerned. I acutally run the overwrite a few times a year anyhow. btw, the overright is not recommended for SSD drives.

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Black Bellamy Newbie

Black Bellamy

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Sledge hammer is pretty much the only way to go.  You need to fragment the plate.   Then you need to sprinkle the fragments into several different garbage loads.

 

  • Heat will warp it, you can still get the data off.
  • Water, salt water, battery acid, whatever liquid, probably won't destroy the entire plate.
  • Drilling holes will only destroy the sectors with holes, you can still get the data off from the undamaged portions,
  • And unless you have an extremely strong neodymium magnet, forget magnetism.  You can never be 100% sure that way.
  • Even with a DOD wipe, you're still just conforming to a standard, never be 100% sure that someone won't reverse the process or something will be missed.

 

Again, unless you see the hard drive plate splinter into a hundred pieces in front of your eyes, you will never have 100% confidence.

 

If you don't feel like swinging a sledgehammer, this is an acceptable substitute:

 

Edited by Black Bellamy
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shawnhu Newbie

shawnhu

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Sledge hammer is pretty much the only way to go. You need to fragment the plate. Then you need to sprinkle the fragments into several different garbage loads.

  • Heat will warp it, you can still get the data off.
  • Water, salt water, battery acid, whatever liquid, probably won't destroy the entire plate.
  • Drilling holes will only destroy the sectors with holes, you can still get the data off from the undamaged portions,
  • And unless you have an extremely strong neodymium magnet, forget magnetism. You can never be 100% sure that way.
  • Even with a DOD wipe, you're still just conforming to a standard, never be 100% sure that someone won't reverse the process or something will be missed.

Again, unless you see the hard drive plate splinter into a hundred pieces in front of your eyes, you will never have 100% confidence.

If you don't feel like swinging a sledgehammer, this is an acceptable substitute:

You sound like you've done is before.

X-Calibur Lighting Systems

http://facebook.com/XCaliburLightingSystems

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