Software to obliterate a hard drive making it impossible to take data from?

[Vegeta]

Hi.

I was wondering if there is any software out there that can completely obliterate a hard drive making it completely unreadable? Something that could be run quickly if needed.

Failing that what's the best way to dispose of said hard drive if in a rush to wipe the memory completely? It's an SSD.

P.S. This has nothing to do with kiddy porn but to do with classified customer accounts on our business hard drive!

Many thanks.

 

[ron3003]

Lump Hammer.

 

[Skeeter]

Lump Hammer.

 

[spoffle]

Lump Hammer.

 

[On Holiday]

Platters out. Grinder.

EDIT: Oh OP, you tricked me. Mixing "hard drive" and "SSD"

Lump Hammer.

 

[Woden]

In a rush? Accountancy firm.

 

[Kreeeee]

In a rush? Accountancy firm.

I used to work for one, they will just send it to a third party to be incinerated, with a certificate.

Remove the middle man and get it certified incinerated.

 

[Orcvader]

HDDs? Magnets. Strong ones. Wiping them in one direction a few times. This kills the drive.

SSDs? Uhh... There's software that can secure erase them whihc pretty much "resets" all the blocks in the SSD but I'm not really sure on this area.

 

[lixxus]

Dban http://www.dban.org/

go to tool i use. especially when selling on my hard drives

 

[darael]

If I want to get rid of chips, from a USB drive for example, I remove them from the PCB and feed them through the paper shredder.

 

[CHokKA]

Are you all spies or something?

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

 

[KIA]

Dban http://www.dban.org/

go to tool i use. especially when selling on my hard drives

OP has an SSD and should use secure erase.

http://partedmagic.com/secure-erase/
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/parted_magic.html

 

[Urbanfreestyle]

+1 for DBAN!!! I've used it a few times in the pass, allowing it to run for 36 hrs (by which time the drive had failed) and then physically destryoy the disk and dispose in several different locations.

 

[ED209]

I take the drive out the back and then beat the living **** out of it with something like a hammer until I get bored and the drive is no longer in 1 piece.

only got rid of the 1 HDD the rest have lasted for years lol

 

[Drizmod]

Windows ME

 

[llamadal]

Windows ME

Laughed more than I should on that one

 

[DJDaz]

I used to work for one, they will just send it to a third party to be incinerated, with a certificate.

Remove the middle man and get it certified incinerated.

Hey don't remove the middle man. I'm the middle man.

 

[JoeF1]

+1 for DBAN!!! I've used it a few times in the pass, allowing it to run for 36 hrs (by which time the drive had failed) and then physically destryoy the disk and dispose in several different locations.

Jesus. What do you have on there

 

[darael]

Jesus. What do you have on there

My thoughts exactly.

With a USB stick or SSD drive, I'm happy enough secure erasing it, random filling it before finally lifting the memory chips off and putting them in the paper shredder. Time to do depends on the speed of the device, but only a few minutes to phsyically destroy the device.

Harddrives, I just format them, random fill, final format before disassmebling and warping the platters. Once you've done a full format on harddrives, it's said that that's already enough to stop casual data thiefs and the generic recovery software out there.

 

[CaptainCrash]

Harddrives, I just format them, random fill, final format before disassmebling and warping the platters. Once you've done a full format on harddrives, it's said that that's already enough to stop casual data thiefs and the generic recovery software out there.

A properly completed full format with zero fill will stop anyone, not just casual data thieves.

I've yet to see any authoritative evidence of useful data ever being recovered from a one-pass zero-filled drive, despite all the claims that you need to overwrite it 97 times with random data and then drop it into the Cracks of Doom in order to be secure.