Ways to kill your drive before binning it?

Strife212 said:
This article angered me, its completely false.

Not even the NSA could get your data back if you write the data over once with zeroes.
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Actually it is possible to retrieve data from a hard drive that has been overwritten several times. Of course the more times the data has been overwritten, the harder it is to retrieve without the use of very very specialist equipment and a lot of money.

So I agree the article was rubbish in that for a home user using a disk nuking program with a number of runs should be more than adequate, but if the NSA want what's on that hard drive then it's probably best to do everything you can to try and destroy it ;)
 
Ohh I forgot to mention that you could also try the secure erase command thats supposed to have been built into hard drives (well the ATA standard) since 2001. Have a read of http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129. Never used it myself, but have heard it works quite well, and short of physically destroying the disk makes it practically impossible to recover :)
 
You may as well have fun with it. Throw it out of a top floor window and then phone up tech support saying it's broken, and see if they replace it *evil grin* lol
If they replace it you can sell the new drive on eBay, no chance of them recovering your data then :p
 
The InQ carried the story that you should hammer your drives, then later had a follow up that some company called them idiots basically. Which apparently mention drive erasing software in their article then go on to say smash it. Legally you're supposed to ditch hardware in a certain way to be "green" and waste as little as possible and what not, not to mention if you simply use erase software thats freely available you can sell the drive recouping some cash, or donate the drive to a charity that will use it to build computers for kids in africa or anywhere else.

Which to be fair is what you should do, if its a working drive, donate it or sell it, smashing it is a complete waste. Which reports really haven't had sensible advise donkey's years(assuming they ever did) and ask people for money to get bad advice when you can normally get whatever you are looking for free from some other source.
 
Ben643 said:
Use darwins boot and nuke 35 pass random wipe thing to initially get rid of the data
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Darik's Boot And Nuke might be a little better for this purpose but I like the idea that Darwin not only wrote Origin of The Species but a handy little wiping program over a century after his death. :p

For most instances a simple wipe/low level format/sero fill will be easily enough to suffice, if you're really paranoid then some of the options here would certainly work, essentially you've got to destroy the platters so anything that will do that is fine - fire, blunt instruments, explosive, large drops etc. You could also consider dropping it over the side next time you get on a cross-Channel ferry.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Darik's You could also consider dropping it over the side next time you get on a cross-Channel ferry.
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But what about the crab people?

I would say use a hammer, its fun, destructive, it will destroy any data and you can imagine it's your boss or someone else you really hate :p
 
What are you guys on about? In the movies I've seen computers rendered useless with a single shot to the monitor!

Much easier....well, you'd need a gun! ;)
 
I just took mine apart after it died, was actually quite interesting to see what actually goes into the insides of a disk (and salvaged a few bits like screws), then I just took out the shinny platters and now use them as coasters for hot drinks. Yeah I’m sure data could still actually be retrieved from the platters themselves but you’ve have to have some really important data (or be doing something really illegal) before anyone would do that!

Failing that how about using the platters for a bit of clay pigeon shooting?
 
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gamer_boy said:
Wipe it with a magnet, drill it, enact sadistic fantasies on it. Basically destroy it as much as possible.
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heard on the radio an expert said they can still have sections of the drive re-coverable after a magnet, a hammer is the only true way to make sure

EvilOne said:
An old microwave, in a concrete backyard. Best date to do this is november the 5th.
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microwaves can leave traces of data on there too, even if its only a tiny bit, sod's law would make it bank details etc
 
Prostheta said:
Hide it a bodily orifice and go for a few x-rays and then an MRI.
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Only if you have a death wish :D
Those pesky MRIs'll suck anything magnetic out your body, and it won't come out the way it went in neither, so you'll be needing surgery and maybe a colostomy bag...
Plus, you might break the MRI machine, and that's more than your hard drive's worth..
 
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