Hard drive disposal

FeFiDoh

FeFiDoh

FeFiDoh

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2005
Posts
7,615
Location
Swindon
Good day all,
Just wondering what you fine folk do when you have hard drives to get rid of? I have no means of destroying them myself and obviously don't want to just through them in the bin.

Thanks
 
Dismantle them then use the platters as coasters. You probably do have all the different bits/drivers in your (Wo)Man draw/cave
 
Take them to the local Comet and see what they say. I know Sainsbury's take use batteries. I believe there is a rule that if you sell a product that you must also accept people's used product (of the same type). Either that or go to the local recycling center. I collect batteries and light bulbs (have a defective torch too), have yet to actually follow through yet.
 
DBAN isn't as useful as it once was

1. AFAIK unless you use the paid version you need to run it from a CD which many people don't have any more
2. With the capacity of many modern drives, it'll take a long time to complete

Dismantling drives to destroy them can be tricky and time-consuming as they often have very small and tight Torx screws holding them together.

For a drive that just needs killing I'd put a couple of holes through the drive in the platter area with a drill.
 
Just hammer it to death, you don't even have to penetrate to the insides, denting the case alone will smash into the heads and lock/damage the platters from ever spinning. I doubt the russians are after your data so no ones gonna take the platters out and try to recover it.
 
Wipe drive, disassemble, then smash/bend platters. If anybody is desperate enough to recover a few of my files after that, they deserve them. :D
 
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