Quick question, does a 'quick format' suffice before recycling a harddrive?

Scam · 18 Apr 2022 at 13:24

As title. I have a 2TB very old external drive that I had old documents and media backed up to. Lots of personal info like old CVs etc.

It's going in the electrical recycling, will a 'quick format' in Windows suffice or should I spend 2-3hrs doing a 'slow' format? (Which I understand writes zeroes to the drive).

Thanks!

Bluecube · 18 Apr 2022 at 14:27

No. A quick format will leave all your data on the hard drive in a recoverable state. A normal format is far better but even it has the possibility of leaving recoverable data behind. You can get apps that will repeatedly write 0s across the data. Google is your friend here.

You say it’s going to recycling. If it’s not going to be used again and will be broken down for parts, then take a hammer to the hard drive and absolutely batter it. This will break the drive platters and leave your data unrecoverable in 99.999% of cases.

ivrytwr3 · 18 Apr 2022 at 19:59

As above - no.

DBan the hdd.

Shac · 18 Apr 2022 at 20:29

But the hammer method is much more satisfying

Orcvader · 19 Apr 2022 at 13:43

As above, quick format just tells the drive it's ok to write over existing data, it won't actually wipe it and can be recoverable.

+1 to DBAN, it will take a while but it will overwrite the entire drive with random junk data. If you're recycling and it won't be used ever again, hammer also works.

House · 19 Apr 2022 at 14:03

last time i took a hammer to a hard drive i broke the patio slab under it. Just saying, pretty sure no-one got anything of that drive though.

t31os · 19 Apr 2022 at 23:26

Depends how sensitive the data is and how straight-forward you want/need things to be, DBAN or a hammer imho. For a non-primary(OS) drive, Eraser might also be sufficient (it can't touch locked OS files naturally).

Scam · 20 Apr 2022 at 08:11

Thanks guys. Will bear it in mind for the next one. Afraid I didn’t use any of those methods this time around but the drive was mainly media and any docs from there, they would have been 10-15 years old anyway, so not current addresses etc. I don’t think back then I would have had anything “sensitive “ anyway. And chances of it falling into the wrong hands are pretty slim anyway I’d hope (hope is not a strategy!). It was quick formatted so as good as blank for your average scavenger.

Manbatius · 20 Apr 2022 at 08:49

I once instead of going hammer route stripped a drive down and used the disk as a coaster in the garage, super shiny !

I'm sure you will be fine op. Always down to how sensitive your data is. Sounds like it was not.

Andre · 20 Apr 2022 at 09:47

Encrypt the disk, then split into platters and electronics - put half in one weeks recycle, half in the next weeks
Did that with about 20 HDDs, mixed the platters up and WEEEEEEE recycled the electronics

SonicSW20 · 20 Apr 2022 at 09:51

Drilling through it will be enough to make it practically unrecoverable.

Deleted member 77746 · 20 Apr 2022 at 11:17

this_is_gav · 20 Apr 2022 at 11:52

Manbatius said:
I once instead of going hammer route stripped a drive down and used the disk as a coaster in the garage, super shiny !.

I used to do the same - platters as coasters worked really well.

The only downside was the platters themselves formed a rather good vacuum with the mug (especially if you'd spilt slightly), so if you unknowingly picked up a mug with the platter still attached to head to the staff room for a refill, it would end up making an almighty noise in the corridor when it inevitably fell off.

Manbatius · 20 Apr 2022 at 13:47

That made me chuckle. A few times they slid onto the garage floor and they made a right clatter.

Blackjack Davy · 23 Apr 2022 at 01:33

For 99% of users who won't know about data recovery and most of the rest who won't care anyway, yes. (For the drives I've bought I've occasionally recovered the data out of curiosity and it was only junk minor stuff and the odd photo it wasn't worth the effort honestly). Unless you're some kind of spy or international criminal or have all your personal bank details backed up on it I wouldn't worry about it.

Django x2 · 23 Apr 2022 at 13:16

House said:
last time i took a hammer to a hard drive i broke the patio slab under it. Just saying, pretty sure no-one got anything of that drive though.

Considering 20 years ago I worked for the company recovering data from disks melted in 9/11, you'd be surprised.

Terminal_Boy · 23 Apr 2022 at 13:33

Top cover off, hammer and chisel to the platters and then off to the recycling centre.