Hard Drive Dead, How to dispose it?

dannaswolcott

dannaswolcott

New Member
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 :)
 
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.
 
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! :P
 
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...:P
 
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hackapelite said:
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?
Click to expand...

Good Point - Smash it and put half in the bin one week and half in the bin the next week
 
hackapelite said:
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...:P
Click to expand...

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.
 
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Locate a shredding service. There exists services that can put the drive through a shredder that grinds it up into tiny pieces. Try a search on the web.
 
hackapelite said:
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...:P
Click to expand...

I shot one with my friends 12gauge along with a clock radio. LOL
 
wow, thanks for the advice. Where i live we are able to have a small bon fire in the back yard, I took the hard drive apart , smashed the disk and put it in the fire. All gone! Thanks for the post.
 
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