How do you kill a hard drive?

[dunndw]

Gallitan Gun Club

+

SW M&P AR15

+

The steel plate on the hill with said HDD duct taped to it

+

XM193

=

WIN

[Angus]

Hi all, first post.

If you disassemble the drive you can pull the neodium magnets from the read/write

head assembly and then slide them all over the surface of the platters. Bye-bye data.

Another option would be an arc welder setup. ZZZZAAAAPPPP!

Yeahhhhh, honestly, disassemble the HDD. Do the Magnet trick. Tha shoudl work fine. If you want utter mayhem and destruction, then I would opt for the Gallitin Gun Club option, or a nice hot fire. But even iffin ya burn it, I would open it up and expose the innards.

[Guest canynracer]

Disassemble, Magnets, then destroy the cookies (disks)

[shaftbass]

There are companies that will shred them to tiny, tiny bits. That is the only way I would trust that there is no possible way anyone could get anything off one.

.40 S&W has a problem penetrating them.

[Hooker771]

[ame]

[/ame]

[ame]

[/ame] Edited September 3, 2008 by Hooker771

[Guest GT_Rat]

Nuke it from orbit.

[Guest macmonkey]

http://drivesavers.com/

These guys can recover data from a number of different "disasters" so if you want to know what data can survive give their site a little read.

I called once and sort of gasped when they told me $2,000 to "LOOK" at a drive.. the nice guy on the other end sort of covered the phone and said... look... go on ebay and find a drive with the same serial number as your current one and remove the actual drive disc from your current one and exchange it into a new case. He said that's basically what we do.

[Guest macmonkey]

another option.. put it into a PC and install vista. That's sure to screw it up eventually.

[Hooker771]

My favorite

[ame]

[/ame]

[molonlabetn]

Melting the platter is the best option.

[Guest Len]

Awesome ideas guys, thanks. Now I have an excuse to buy a blow torch!

I still want to take it to the club and run some .223 through it, but they don't let us have any fun. I suppose I could go to that range in Cheatam County where it has been suggested on this forum that you go there with a posse and body armour. Sounds like they let you do all sorts of stuff there.

[dunndw]

Len..what about HGRs private range? If nothing else I"ll check W/ the in laws. Perhaps they'd be up on us rolling out there one day with your hard drive and the stack I have to kill.

100 acres but...momma doesn't really like me shooting out there too much..scares the critters. Last time I went out there I had to yell at the deer to leave...after I cut loose with the SPAS 12 a couple of times.

and before anyone asks...no...no hunting allowed. The father in law tried that...once. The guy he gave permission to hunt there was scared off...by my 5 ft nothing unarmed mother in law.

[shaftbass]

The thing with hard drives is that when they do come apart, they are a damn mess. I had about 40 bad ones from work that I've collected over the years that I planned on shooting, but after shooting two the cleanup was just too much. Large to small pieces of the case fragment off, circuit board pieces everywhere, parts of the motor blown up.. I guess the best option would be to dig a pit and shoot them all in there and then bury the mess, but if you care about the land (your yard, etc) that you plan on shooting them on, I would just be wary of this aspect.

[Marswolf]

Actually, I have a similar problem. I have a laptop that has died. But I replaced the HD not too long ago and filled up the 60 gig drive (I think it is 60 Gig) with all sorts of stuff. Wouldn't mind giving it to someone, but not with recoverable data on it. I have the erasure disc, just no way to run it.

[dariks]

I third or fourth the thermite idea.

[ame]

[/ame]

[Guest tnmale46]

a 243 wssm did a great job on my last one

[Guest MidTNShooter]

If you want to do it the easy way, non messy (even though I like the blow tourch idea), I have some software that we use to erase the hard drives at work. We work in the financial data field, so like a previous author wrote about multiple erases should be the way to go. Our software isn't free and we purchase license per unit. I can lend it to you, but will need the original back (wink wink). It will wipe the drive 21 times. It loads and unloads so much information that it isn't worth the while to retrieve it. I have used the free and purchased versions that will wipe it three times (a minimum for the mo and pops), but depends what is on it, parts (not all) can be pulled back off.

Heck wipe it, burn it....then shoot it. Leave the hammer alone, parts fly and the platters still can be retrieved.

Take care,

MTS

[Luckyforward]

Show it a picture of my ex wife . . .

[Guest m&pc9]

this looks good

[memphismason]

My answer fer everything...

Shoot it.

[Guest Len]

I've gotta get me some of that there thermite!

Never mind, I can make my own!

[ame]

[/ame] Edited September 4, 2008 by Len

[Guest db99wj]

Wow. That would make for a cool school science fair project!

[dralarms]

In order to destroy date, remove the platters from the case, throw case away screw platters down to 2x6 or 2x4, take elextric grinding wheel to 1 side of platter, let cool (very important) remove from board, turn over, repeat process, remove, dump in trash. after you remove the "layers" there won't be anything left to "retrieve".

[molonlabetn]

The #1 way to destroy a hard-drive:

Install Windows.

[Guest db99wj]

The #1 way to destroy a hard-drive:

Install Windows.