How to delete old hard drives

[pedrobedro]

That'll be lost on many!

We gotta move these microwave ovens

 

[daleyd]

...has joined the chat....

 

[brightspark]

View attachment 472296

...has joined the chat....

yep clearing out your porn of the disk

 

[doubleboost]

I was told by a lad that did computer recovery work for the police to burn the drives

 

[Shedendman]

Take them apart by what ever way you like,BUT,save the magnets,bloody handy little things those
Or post them to me

 

[Blobber]

Data recovery is not at all easy.

I think you have more chance of getting hit by a bus tomorrow than someone deciding to spend a whole load of time and effort recovering unknown data from an unknown hard drive.

If you've taken the pcb off, you're already well into the realm of professional recovery. Some dirty "stuff" inside, and youre onto stripping in clean room enviroments... All to recover your holiday snaps?

Its just not going to happen.

But what sort of holiday snaps are they?

 

[Robotstar5]

There was a secure disposal company on the estate where I worked, they had an industrial shredder that turned the drives into almost dust.
I just hold the disc in a vice and fold it, then flex along the fold line until it snaps.

 

[dyno-tron]

I've tried a few "secure delete" utilities, with various types of overwriting. Then I found https://www.videohelp.com/software/PhotoRec It is a recovery tool targeted at pics, vids, etc but will recover most files. It's quite alarming what it can recover from a HDD even after a full secure overwrite!!

I keep the lids (stainless steel) and the magnets, then just hammer the platters :-)

 

[jmp49]

MACs have disk utility, various wipe options, I’m sure windows will have something similar. The most secure one on the Mac writes over the data again and again, something like 7 times I think, takes a very long time but I doubt anyone is going to bother trying to recover it after that and what was on them in the first place that was so secure that they’d want to try anyway. Then you can flog them and make some money off them, also saves clearing up the mess of shards after they’ve been shattered.

So does putting the platten's inside a bank bag before you thwack it into bits with a brick hammer...

 

[Kayos]

Last ones I got rid of were chopped up with a Stihl saw

Not sure it will be as exciting when it comes to SSD or nvme disposal?

I've read that the CIA use what they call acid boosted shredders, not sure on the validity of the claim though

 

[Bobo]

I cut mine in half on the little bandsaw with a fine tooth metal cutting blade in it. Simples.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Ideally looking for something quick and easy...I have at least a couple dozen to do. I'm thinking of making a small jig with a bit of ply and then just passing a flap disc over the surfaces. Hammer was appealing...but if they're brittle then I really don't want bits flying everywhere.

 

[Turbo]

If its an ally disc a decent blow lamp will melt it very quickly.

 

[mcostello]

If really paranoid, just do any of the above,then separate it into 3 piles and put one pile a week in the wheelie bin.

 

[Jack_K]

Once you've damaged the boards and disassembled the drives, it's so difficult to recover that someone would have to want YOUR data a lot to bother trying to recover it.

Damage the platter and you've made it so much more difficult.

When companies pay for secure erasure, it's usually either using a degausser or erased using software like Blancco (Enterprise use only).

DBAN which is free used to be what everyone used for personal use but Blancco bought it as an advertising tool so no updates have been done since except adding the Blancco logo.

When companies want SSDs erased more securely than Blancco, they are shredded so fine it's like sand. The DOD does this to RAM too.

 

[iamdaniel]

Hammer for sure.

 

[dyno-tron]

Ideally looking for something quick and easy...I have at least a couple dozen to do. I'm thinking of making a small jig with a bit of ply and then just passing a flap disc over the surfaces. Hammer was appealing...but if they're brittle then I really don't want bits flying everywhere.

The platters will most likely be aluminium

 

[jmp49]

Ideally looking for something quick and easy...I have at least a couple dozen to do. I'm thinking of making a small jig with a bit of ply and then just passing a flap disc over the surfaces. Hammer was appealing...but if they're brittle then I really don't want bits flying everywhere.

As above, put platter inside a oldschool stitched canvas bank moneybag (IDK if they still have them, but substitute modern thing), and thwack the lumpy bit with a brick hammer. Bits are constrained, then just tip the remnants out and put the next one in until the bag is so knackered it stops holding things.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

This one was interesting...made in 1999 so around 25 years old. Beautifully put together inside and the magnets are so strong they're difficult to pull apart.

Was a shame to destroy it.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I'm thinking on a new HDD that's had bitlocker encryption from new then there's very little risk because the data on the drive itself is encrypted.

...but nothing beats the protection of a nice big hammer!