hard drive destruction

[Carsgunsandchics]

The last few that I've cleared I used a mig welder. Placed the ground clamp on one edge and struck a few arcs on the opposite edges. From appearances it fully fractured the integrity of the entire platter.

[ExtremeX]

Open them up and take the magnets out; those are awesome and have many uses... very strong magnets too…

Drive platters, save a few, they make awesome emergency signal mirrors, especially from the 2.5" hard drives. (Friends idea)

Take a drill / drill press to the rest of the platters…

If you don’t care to salvage any cool stuff from the drives… just drill a bunch of holes into it and give them to an e-waste company for recycling. Most of the reputable companies I give e-waste to also send drive to a commercial data destruction facility.

[MaHoTex]

Do what I did and make a pistol mount!
I screwed two of the magnets into the bottom of my desk (one was strong enough, but two made it extra secure) I covered them with cloth so they didn't scratch the finish.

You might want to consider PlastiDip instead of cloth. And yes, those magnets are insane. Do not get your skin pinched between two of them.

[odysseus]

What you want to do is keep the computer running with the HDs and do a proper boot to sector wipe of all the data on it. With the data you mentioned properly wiped over several times, you are going to be GTG.

As mentioned, there are disk "shred" services around. However I have seen notable problems with those services, one example is in that your drive is often not kept secure while it sits in wait at a lot of places that service the public.

A 10 pound metal hammer works wonders too.

As far as magnets, it has to be a special degauss tool - which most people don't have around.

[bg]

i drill at least 4 holes in em. All the way through. If i want to really
make sure nothing is ever pulled, i pour some drain cleaner
like Muriatic Acid inside and shake it up with a little water.

That works pretty well.

[glockman19]

The best way to destroy hard drives is to cook them or torch them. Once the platters get hot enough any data that was recoverable is gone for good.

[nanoc]

Big drill bit & small sledge hammer.

I have a friend who does e-recycling for a living. Drill/drill press is what he uses, he recently did a bank and all they required was one hole threw the HD to be considered destroyed.

[gschoelles]

Big drill bit & small sledge hammer.

+1 unless you expect someone with BigBucks (Government) trying to recover the drives.

[meaty-btz]

Target Practice. Depending on the platter material (aluminum or ceramic) they will either punch through or shatter. In either case, the data layer flakes off. Data destroyed even from a super evil government level.

It is also fun. The magnets are better in the older drives, newer drives use cheaper and lighter materials and smaller magnets to save on cost. Older drives have ones strong enough to crush the bones in your finger (don't try it).

[penguinofsleep]

Depends on your personality.

Are you a hoarder or a "frugal" type? If so then dissassemble them. You get to get a few small screws that you can possibly use to fix things like glasses or laptops or just hold in a pill bottle for a rainy day. AND the best part is that you get to get some WICKED strong magnets. Then when you are done you can dump the leftover parts into a box for recylcing the metal or just toss it all in the garbage.

Are you a neat guy that does things by the book? If so then get a good software wiping program that wipes per DOD spec xxxx and run it, it will take a while - like several hours or longer per drive possibly, but you can rest assured that you did your part, when you are done, put the drives into a computer case with a motherboard and other parts and sell it or give it to a library if they collect e-waste. You might get a tax write off too.

Are you a REAL cal gunner? Take them to the range and adjust them with an ak or AR. I adjusted my Belkin Omniport pro with my Deagle 44 and made a movie for you tube about it.

Personally, it is in your best interest to take them apart, remove the magnets and then maybe save the platters and chuck all else. The platters are what you need and you can destroy them at a range or tie string to them and hang them in your trees to scare away the birds.

GL & HF!

^ this guy here.

i personally would keep the magnets.

[2shotjoe]

Microwave.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[stilly]

Target Practice. Depending on the platter material (aluminum or ceramic) they will either punch through or shatter. In either case, the data layer flakes off. Data destroyed even from a super evil government level.

It is also fun. The magnets are better in the older drives, newer drives use cheaper and lighter materials and smaller magnets to save on cost. Older drives have ones strong enough to crush the bones in your finger (don't try it).

Oh REALLY???????

I JUST happen to have TWO seagate MFM type drives (before there was IDE there was MFM) Are those old enough? Imma take one apart and have a lookie.

I have some SCSI drives too along with the some PATAs

[meaty-btz]

Oh REALLY???????

I JUST happen to have TWO seagate MFM type drives (before there was IDE there was MFM) Are those old enough? Imma take one apart and have a lookie.

I have some SCSI drives too along with the some PATAs

The stronger magnets will require significant strength to separate from each other and that is with a 1/2" metal support framework keeping them apart. You will know if you have them. These are not a toy moron. Large neodymium magnets are not a joke.

Stilly is gunning for the play stupid games win stupid prizes category of the week: Magnetic Idiocy- idiots are magnetically attracted do dangerous stunts. Who knew?

[OniKoroshi]

If they are functional I would DL CCleaner and use the DoD or Gutmann wipe

[Rivers]

I had to have data recovery for a client's HD a few years ago. The company that did the recovery also worked for the Post Office, CIA, and a few other alphabet agencies. The specialist who worked on my project answered that exact question.

Take the HD in your hand and SLAP it down onto a flat hard surface, like a formica countertop. Impact like a belly-flop. Won't make any marks on the exterior but it crashes all of the platters into each other, much like the demolition process of a high-rise building. He said the platters would be so crystalized that it's their "worst case" scenario. There are small pieces, then there are REALLY SMALL pieces that break every time you touch them.

This guy had recovered data from child pornographers who cut their discs into pieces, burned their drives, hit them with hammers, etc. The recoveries required reading each segment of the platter and were very time consuming, but each resulted in a criminal conviction so they were successfully recovered.

I would think that for the very paranoid, sit a couple pound magnet on the drive overnight, then slap it.