Hard Drive Dead, How to dispose it?

dannaswolcott · 03-30-2008, 02:00 PM

My hard drive died and i had to buy a new one. I have banking, ebay, bills, quicken on that hard drive. I cant get the hard drive to spin up to remove the data from it. Is there a way i can destroy the data from the old hard drive so i can toss it in the trash and not worrying that someone can get my banking and all that info from my hard drive? I have had problems once before when i tossed out a old computer someone picked it up and got my banking account number from the hard drive, I don't want that to happen again.

If i cant get the info off of there, Do i just save the hard drive and put it away?
Let me know what i should do. Thanks

funkysnair · 03-30-2008, 02:04 PM

i would just hit it with a hammer lol...

StrangleHold · 03-30-2008, 04:19 PM

Be curious and take the drive apart and check it out, while its apart smash the disks.(cover your eyes)

munkyeetr · 03-30-2008, 04:27 PM

Yeah, if your curious, take it apart and see what's inside, but if you just need it destroyed do one or more of the following:

1) Smash it repeatedly with a hammer.
2) Throw it repeatedly on the ground until it sounds like sand when you shake it.
3) Drive a nail, screw or spike through the top of the drive and through the platters.

All the above = dead.

Quentin_T · 03-31-2008, 03:21 AM

Smashing with a hammer could be fun, but it's easier to just drill a few holes through the drive. And if you had access to a large electromagnet that wouldn't hurt either.

What kinda bills are you paying? Your 16!

cohen · 03-31-2008, 03:23 AM

Run it over in your car

hackapelite · 03-31-2008, 03:27 AM

If you want to make sure that no-one will EVER recover any of you data, drilling holes and magnets won't be much of help. Smash the platters into pieces and then scatter them around so that it's impossible to physically locate them pieces.

Anyone ever tried shooting the platters with a BB gun or airrifle? Would that do anything? Wanna have a go...

cohen · 03-31-2008, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hackapelite

If you want to make sure that no-one will EVER recover any of you data, drilling holes and magnets won't be much of help. Smash the platters into pieces and then scatter them around so that it's impossible to physically locate them pieces.

Anyone ever tried shooting the platters with a BB gun or airrifle? Would that do anything?

Good Point - Smash it and put half in the bin one week and half in the bin the next week

atl · 03-31-2008, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hackapelite

If you want to make sure that no-one will EVER recover any of you data, drilling holes and magnets won't be much of help. Smash the platters into pieces and then scatter them around so that it's impossible to physically locate them pieces.

Anyone ever tried shooting the platters with a BB gun or airrifle? Would that do anything? Wanna have a go...

Are you people joking? Its one thing to destroy a HD for fun...but to say that drilling holes and strong magnets will not work is laughable at best.

The thing you must think about is WHO will have the money, and will want to spend the money, time, and overall resources to find out what is on a HD that someone drilled twenty holes in which was found in a landfill? Honestly? You cant just fire up a HD that has holes drilled in it or if its broken in half...it doesnt work like that.

Its funny how people think that their data is so private, that they must grind up the HD in a meat grinder, then melt the HD grindings and throw it in the ocean to prevent someone finding out what was on that HD.

EDIT: Personally, I would take the casing off the HD, then drill holes in the HD. OR, I would take some 40/60 grit sandpaper and go to town on the disks. No need for anything more.

G25r8cer · 03-31-2008, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hackapelite

If you want to make sure that no-one will EVER recover any of you data, drilling holes and magnets won't be much of help. Smash the platters into pieces and then scatter them around so that it's impossible to physically locate them pieces.

Anyone ever tried shooting the platters with a BB gun or airrifle? Would that do anything? Wanna have a go...

I shot one with my friends 12gauge along with a clock radio. LOL

03-30-2008, 02:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
dannaswolcott Platinum Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: world of my own Age: 18 Posts: 651	Hard Drive Dead, How to dispose it? My hard drive died and i had to buy a new one. I have banking, ebay, bills, quicken on that hard drive. I cant get the hard drive to spin up to remove the data from it. Is there a way i can destroy the data from the old hard drive so i can toss it in the trash and not worrying that someone can get my banking and all that info from my hard drive? I have had problems once before when i tossed out a old computer someone picked it up and got my banking account number from the hard drive, I don't want that to happen again. If i cant get the info off of there, Do i just save the hard drive and put it away? Let me know what i should do. Thanks __________________ Gateway NV52 Laptop: AMD Athlon X2 2.1ghz Dual Core, 4GB DDR2 Ram, 320GB HD, ATI Radeon 3200 HD, Wireless N, Win VISTA Pre 64-Bit, DVD-RW, Webcam & Mic. Custom Built Desktop, Intel Pentium Dual Core 2ghz OC to 3ghz, 720gb HD, Win VISTA x64bit 500W PSU, 512mb Video Card, 4gb ram DVD-RW (Aug 08)Toshiba Satellite A135-S7406 Laptop, Celeron M 1.73ghz, 2GB DDR2 Ram, 80GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW, Windows VISTA(Dec 17th 2007) Road Runner Turbo, Linksys Wireless N My Website

03-30-2008, 02:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
funkysnair VIP Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newcastle-England-uk Age: 27 Posts: 2,743	i would just hit it with a hammer lol... __________________ intel i7 920@3.6ghz-foxconn flamingblade-6gig gskill ddr3 1600mhz-ati 4890-coolermaster 700watt psu-intel mx25-m ssd 80gig-samsung spinpoint f1 1tb-custom liquid cooling-windows7 64bit

03-30-2008, 04:19 PM	#3 (permalink)
StrangleHold VIP Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 11,199	Be curious and take the drive apart and check it out, while its apart smash the disks.(cover your eyes) __________________ NZXT Apollo S75QB 750W ZEROtherm FZ120 Phenom II 720BE (X4) 3.5GHZ. Gigabyte GA MA790X UD4P G Skill DDR2 1066 4GB. MSI GTS 250 Seagate 7200.12 500GB. Welcome to the show

03-30-2008, 04:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
munkyeetr Platinum Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Age: 86 Posts: 629	Yeah, if your curious, take it apart and see what's inside, but if you just need it destroyed do one or more of the following: 1) Smash it repeatedly with a hammer. 2) Throw it repeatedly on the ground until it sounds like sand when you shake it. 3) Drive a nail, screw or spike through the top of the drive and through the platters. All the above = dead. __________________ If the advice you receive helps, please post a reply saying so as courtesy to others who will come here with the same problem. MSI MS-7032 MB - Sempron 3000+ 1.8Ghz - 2GB PC3200 500GB Western Digital - 80GB Samsung - 80GB Maxtor (Dualbooting Ubuntu 7.10/Debian Lenny) nVidia GF 5700LE 256MB (AGP) - SoundBlaster 24bit PCI LiteOn DVDRW - Acer AL1916W 19" (2x) Registered Linux User: 448689

03-31-2008, 03:21 AM	#5 (permalink)
Quentin_T Gold Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: NH Age: 28 Posts: 268	Smashing with a hammer could be fun, but it's easier to just drill a few holes through the drive. And if you had access to a large electromagnet that wouldn't hurt either. What kinda bills are you paying? Your 16! __________________ Main PC.....................\HTPC......................\Server.................. Intel Core 2 Duo 6700\AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+\AMD Athlon 3000+ Asus P5B-Deluxe WiFi\Biostar TF7050-M2\Asus A7N8X-Deluxe Rev2 2GB Kingston DDR2 800\2 GB Crucial DDR2 800\1GB Crucial DDR 400 WD 36GB Raptor + WD 500GB\250GB\320GB\500GB\160GB\2x 500GB BFG 8600 GTS 256MB\XFX 8500 GT 512MB\ATI X700 256MB O/C'd Sony HS95P(19"+17")\Sharp Aquos 42" LCD\Absolutely Nothing!!!! Boredom led me to do this...

03-31-2008, 03:23 AM	#6 (permalink)
cohen Diamond Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 15 Posts: 8,361	Run it over in your car __________________ Cohen

03-31-2008, 03:27 AM	#7 (permalink)
hackapelite VIP Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne, Kangarooland Age: 18 Posts: 2,541	If you want to make sure that no-one will EVER recover any of you data, drilling holes and magnets won't be much of help. Smash the platters into pieces and then scatter them around so that it's impossible to physically locate them pieces. Anyone ever tried shooting the platters with a BB gun or airrifle? Would that do anything? Wanna have a go... __________________ Teh Shiznizzel, yo! Runs Ubuntu Linux 9.04* (next up: Gentoo)* AMD Phenom 8450 X3 @2.1GHz ASRock AOD790GX/128M (SB750) ATI Radeon HD3300 IGP 128MB Shared memory 2x2GB AMICROE DDR2-800 6-6-6-18 500GB Samsung + 320GB Seagate Barracuda 380Watt CoolerMaster PSU LG "SuperMulti" DVD Writer Generic MIDI Tower I'm a VIP and thereore immune in teh interwebz! Last edited by hackapelite; 03-31-2008 at 03:29 AM.

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