Old desktop hard drives

[bedraggled]

I have 5 hard drives, a couple from back in the 90s.  How can they be rendered to useless so that I can can get rid of them?

Thanks.

[Tyler]

Target practice?

Magnets and salt water might also be effective choices.

Funny story - I knew a guy once who went through like four office laptops in four months. The hard drives just kept failing. IT was convinced he was a moron who was easy prey to viruses or dropping his computer or something, until they discovered he also carried a large magnet in his laptop bag for some reason. Problem solved.

[Pointedstick]

Power tools or guns. Drill through them with a hammer drill, cut them to ribbons using a miter saw with a diamond blade, shoot them full of holes with a rifle or shotgun. The parts you need to destroy are the platters. You can open the drives up with a screwdriver, remove the platters, and just destroy those.

[Mountaineer]

I use a sledgehammer (edge head on one side, flat head on the other) with multiple hits from both sides of the hammer until the drive case is thoroughly deformed and the platters are shattered.  Good exercise program as well. 

... M

[Gabe]

Or... you know, just install DBAN on a CD, boot from it, and do a 3-pass (or 30 if you're paranoid) wipe.

Though depending on the circumstances, I suppose a sledgehammer could be simpler.

At my last job at a government lab, they had a disk shredder (basically a super-powered wood-chipper) they'd use to dispose of disks that had classified data on them.

[dragoncar]

Thermite: http://youtube.com/watch?v=k-ckechIqW0

Or... you know, just install DBAN on a CD, boot from it, and do a 3-pass (or 30 if you're paranoid) wipe.

But seriously, this.  Unless you think you are being personally targeted by someone with vast forensic resources (manpower and exotic gear) a few random wipes are sufficient. 

[Xan]

I think really even one wipe is sufficient.  I'm not sure there's been a documented case where it wasn't.

If you have a USB hard drive adapter, you should be able to write all zeroes to a drive without having to leave your normal environment.  Something like
this: http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-5-25-INCH ... 00DQJME7Y/
will cover old EIDE drives, modern SATA drives, mobile drives, etc.

over write with ones and zeros ...Boring... overwrite and fill the entire drive with this instead

[bedraggled]

Great info.

I now have some options.

Any other solutions will be greatly appreciated.  I figured this forum would provide some good answers.

Thanks.

[Pointedstick]

Or... you know, just install DBAN on a CD, boot from it, and do a 3-pass (or 30 if you're paranoid) wipe.

If you're capable of doing this, you're probably not asking the question in the first place.

[Libertarian666]

Target practice?

Magnets and salt water might also be effective choices.

Funny story - I knew a guy once who went through like four office laptops in four months. The hard drives just kept failing. IT was convinced he was a moron who was easy prey to viruses or dropping his computer or something, until they discovered he also carried a large magnet in his laptop bag for some reason. Problem solved.

So they misdiagnosed the particular type of moron.

[Mark Leavy]

Really, the sledgehammer/maul approach is simple, quick, efficient and guaranteed.  I'm as techy as anyone, but I always had a 16 lb hammer in my office.

[Mark Leavy]

Mister - you ever seen what a Henry rifle 16 lb sledge can do in the hands of somebody who knows how to use it?

[Tyler]

Funny story - I knew a guy once who went through like four office laptops in four months. The hard drives just kept failing. IT was convinced he was a moron who was easy prey to viruses or dropping his computer or something, until they discovered he also carried a large magnet in his laptop bag for some reason. Problem solved.

So they misdiagnosed the particular type of moron.

LOL.  Exactly.

[bedraggled]

I now have magnets sitting on 6 old hard drives.  Three are pretty strong.  The availability of a sledge hammer in Manhattan, NYC, is not good.  I used to split oak with a wedge and mallet but my parents sold the place- would have been fun.

How long do I leave the magnets in place?  Should I rotate the stronger magnets?  How about tossing them in a drawer altogether for a week? A month?

The shotgun idea has its appeal.  My deer permit was last used in 1976.  Deer hunting in the Catskills in New York back then was a nice walk in the woods followed by the boredom of sitting on post for 6 hours.  So, according to you folks, a .35 cal. lever-action Marlin with a 200 grain bullet would be effective?

THanks and keep the thoughts coming.

[dragoncar]

I now have magnets sitting on 6 old hard drives.  Three are pretty strong.  The availability of a sledge hammer in Manhattan, NYC, is not good.  I used to split oak with a wedge and mallet but my parents sold the place- would have been fun.

How long do I leave the magnets in place?  Should I rotate the stronger magnets?  How about tossing them in a drawer altogether for a week? A month?

The shotgun idea has its appeal.  My deer permit was last used in 1976.  Deer hunting in the Catskills in New York back then was a nice walk in the woods followed by the boredom of sitting on post for 6 hours.  So, according to you folks, a .35 cal. lever-action Marlin with a 200 grain bullet would be effective?

THanks and keep the thoughts coming.

I don't think the magnets will do anything by themselves-- they need to be moving relative to the disk platter (better to remove the metal casing as it wil interfere with the magnets)

This is why the NSA uses a degausser -- electromagnetic coil with fluctuating field. You can actually buy them cheaply on eBay or possibly repurpose an old speaker, or even build yourself

But yeah, move those magnets around

[bedraggled]

dragoncar,

Thanks.  This is a bit confusing.  I will reread your post when I am awake.


And now, everyone,

How do I open the hard drive case to get the memory component out?  What household tools do the trick?

Looks like I may be searching ebay later.  Must wake up first.

Thanks, again.

[WiseOne]

I was going to suggest opening the case, pulling out the disk and then using your method of choice to break it.  If you can't get the drive open, then I think the sledgehammer is your best bet.  Pick a spot in the garage, patio, sidewalk etc, go get your heaviest hammer, and have a great time.

You could also take it to place like tekserve and ask them to open the drive for you.  But that's not nearly as much fun as the sledgehammer would be.

[Mountaineer]

Be sure to wear eye protection if you use the sledgehammer.  I've had slivers of something emanate from the hard drive case after several hard blows.

... M

[bedraggled]

You are all so helpful.

I need a sledge and a garage in Manhattan.

[dualstow]

I enjoyed hammering a hard drive for my dad in his driveway, but I tend to just keep all of mine in the basement.

[Greg]

Just bury it where you bury your gold.