Disposing of HDD

Soldato
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I have a Samsung HDD which hasn't been functioning for a bit and just in the computer. Finally dug it out. Question is, how do I get rid of it? Just in the bin or...?

Not too concerned with the data on it - mostly, if not only, just copies of TV shows from years ago. Haven't got rid of HDDs before as I've just transferred them, or got rid of the computer as a whole, so not sure what to do above the norm.
 
Associate
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Depends how paranoid you want to be/are. Run a data shredder tool on it with as many random passes as you can tolerate, then take the drive apart. Put on safety goggles and sledgehammer the platters etc, then take the various parts to different recycling centres on different dates.

Darik's boot and nuke is one such free tool - https://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/
 

Kei

Kei

Soldato
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Remove the platters and make coasters or a wind chime from them as they have a surprisingly nice ring to them and the mirror finish looks great. Far better to make use of some of it than smashing it to bits. Plus if you have the platters, you can’t worry about data security.

Put the rest in the WEE recycling.
 
Soldato
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eat it

(personally id not remove the platters and touch them, god knowns what chemicals are on them)

safer to just eat them
 
Soldato
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The platters make good drinks coasters! Nice polished aluminium finish. No chemicals on them.
 
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Soldato
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If you want to sell it just nuke the drive, if you want to throw it away then hit it with a hammer 10 times hard and you'll know it's done for.
 
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QWzbfQ.jpg
 
Soldato
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Hahaha. Thanks everyone. Pretty much what I expected Some good ideas!

Plan is to just get rid of it since it doesn't work anyway, so this would just be an extra precaution.

Though @TangoEchoAlpha - Damn! I've got some TV shows I...obtained...on it, not state secrets!
 
Soldato
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Just taking some apart now for some coasters. The "normal" drives all had bad sectors so no dramas inside. The 15K server disk though had scored platters from a head crash, wasn't expecting that!
 
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