Hard Drive Destruction?
 

Has anyone used a shredding service to destroy their hard drive? It is too late for me to reformat. It's a very old drive from the early 2000s. I've looked up a bunch of tutorials. Some use a hammer, some use a drill... but most say this still isn't always effective. It seems to me the best option is a shredding service. I can't seem to find one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, though. If anyone has any experience with this please let me know.

Why are you destroying it ?

In most cases drilling it several times is just fine. Unless you expect the government is going to get something off of it and they are actively investigating you. In which case, drill it, then invite a friend over and have them dispose of it in a trash dumpster for you. After checking for tails of course.

I've never had anything on a drive I've owned where I'd pay money to have destroyed. I would think fire would be the ideal form of destruction. Or get a cutting torch and go to town.

not too difficult - take it apart, break the discs, dispose in separate bins

maybe invest in some Neodymium Magnets. Open it and tamper it as much as you can then use a powerful magnet on the HD itself

Forbes Welcome

Are you running a missile silo? Just put a nail through it.

Get yourself one of these bad boys:

http://www.magnet4less.com/images/4x2x2.jpg

(Approximate pull force: over 710 lbs.)

And very, very carefully....:helpme

Edit: beat me to it!

Rent a boat for a pleasant afternoon on the ocean (if near) and bring the HD with you (Sopranos Style) of find a bridge over deep water...

Next !

You break it into 20 parts:

1. The first 5 parts you dissolve in Hydrofluoric acid

2. The next 5 parts you bury in 5 different cities.

3. The next 5 you bury in your dog's poo.

4. The last 5 you take one by one on your overseas vacations and toss them into a river / ocean / lake,

That's about it

Personally I just take a large sledge hammer and whack them a few times. No idea how effective, but it sure is fun.

That's probably what I'll end up doing. I read that drilling it can ruing the screw driver. Is that true? I wouldn't need to be doing this if I had simply reformatted the drive.

I'd just plug it in and write all zeros to it with something like eraser (Eraser | Erase Files from Hard Drives), then run the magnet from a larger speaker over it a few times for good measure and toss it. It's a magnetic disk, killing the data isn't that hard.

Couple passes with a cutting torch (oxyacetylene)
Drive-b-gone!

This will do it.

You could always just call up this guy...

Fill up a bucket with water. Add salt. Dump the drive. Cover it. Leave it. Its done.
Or what MaDalton said.

Bust it open with a sledge hammer and put the platters in a microwave for about 8 seconds, amazing fireworks show . . .

I had to smash 20-30 a few months ago and just used a hammer and made sure i could hear the disk rattle around inside.

microwave it. no joke.

.338 Lapua Magnum @ 1,000+ yards.

Might as well make a fun challenge out of it.

Nothing a good few wacks of a hammer can't fix.

Don't dump in the trash together. Spread it out over trash pickup days or different trash cans.

Sleep good.

thermal lance does the trick.

What the fuck do you people have on your HDs? - Do you eat small children and record it?..

:helpme:helpme:helpme.....

gay deviant homo sex

cant fault people for wanting to erase it

Just give it to my 2 yr old Grandson to play with... It will be fucked beyond all possible repair within minutes... :2 cents:

Quickest worry free method for me! Plus, it feels great if you put it in the middle of the road and sledgehammer it to death.

https://media.giphy.com/media/1Nclw5CJ3N77G/giphy.gif

These days it doesn't matter. Anything you have on your hard disk is likely backed up at NSA headquarters anyway. In fact most of our data comes from the internet now so technically, big brother has it before you do.

Magnets are unreliable for destroying data. They corrupt, but do not destroy the data, making it possible to repair. Maybe not 100% but nobody needs 100% of your data to fuck with you.

To make it really difficult (essentially impossible) to read you should use a program that overwrites the data multiple times, maybe then smash the platters or drill them up good.

If you are going for physical damage, you should know the only part you need to destroy is the platters. If anyone wants your data real bad, they can replace the other parts of the disk such as the housing, spindle, circuit-board etc. with an identical model. It's not easy but it can be done.

https://kellidgordonlibertyblog.file...likes-this.jpg

NSA hid spying software in hard drive firmware, report says - Technology & Science - CBC News

The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.

:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

I had a hard drive fail. I opened it up and the discs were completely intact. The restoration lab wanted $800 just because it was exposed to air. Take a sledge hammer to it. Break the disc into pieces. No way anybody but the NSA is going to get anything off it. But generally, you can just do a secure format first. It overwrites the bits in different patterns so it is near impossible to measure any residual effects from the previous data.

6 cups chicken broth
1 cup celery, carrots, onions each
Bay leaf
1 lb chopped chicken breast
the harddrive
Prepare two cups of noodles to be added 10 minutes before you eat the soup.
If you manage to shit the drive out, you can be sure that no one will go near it.

Absolute data desctruction is obtained by heading the hard driver over 400 or 600 degrees, it's impossible to recover afterwards.

Only if they're covered in gold..

http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/u...es-620x334.jpg

Lightly roasted with just a hint of salt. Bilderberg conspiracy.

I heard if you shake the drives hard enough all of the magnetic bits that are standing up (perpendicular recording) will fall over.

Seriously though, you would need to be excessively paranoid, or some sort of spook in fear of his life, to be THAT worried about data destruction. Remove the 5 or so screws that are securing the lid (one or more may be hidden under labels), remove lid, hit innards with a hammer. If you're really keen you should be able to remove the individual platters to give them some extra attention.

It doesn't matter if the NSA "could" retrieve 5% of your data from the mangled mess, the question is "why would they need to?"

Personally I don't care about governments, I'm not doing anything illegal. I just don't want some random person stealing all my passwords, or worse yet competition getting their hands on it.

Just send it to me and I'll use it fucker

10lb maul works for me