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I need to destroy a hard disk drive and ensure the contents are never recoverable. What is the best way to do this?
I was thinking of dropping it in a body of water around the GVRD. Would the water damage suffice?
I also need to get rid of some paper, what is the best way to rid of these aside from calling in Shred-it?
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Sometimes we tend to be in despair when the person we love leaves us, but the truth is, it's not our loss, but theirs, for they left the only person who couldn't give up on them.
Make the effort and take the risk..
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." - Eleanor Roosevelt
As for the paper, if it's a few sheets use a large ziploc bag and water. It'll turn it into pulp.
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Originally posted by CRS I would make a comment in regards to your intelligence but I don't think that you would appreciate the full mockery of that comment.
In other words..
I would love to insult you but you wouldn't understand.
will serve your needs and then some. If I am not mistaken, the US DoD specifications only require anywhere between 3 to 7 passes of such secure erase procedures before the disk contents are considered unrecoverable.
Note that these secure erase software will probably not work with SSD. If your drive is an SSD, I don't know what to recommend.
As per current DoD requirements the drive must be physically destroyed. Take a sledgehammer to it. We have a company come out and shred our old drives.
I would write zeros to the drive using the utility provided by the HD Manufacturer or use Acronis True Image if you want it written more than once. Once you start using the drive again and overwriting the data, it will unrecoverable. Writing zeros will take hours depending on the size of the drive.
As for the paper there is nothing better than burning it. A shredder doesn't even come close.
These are old drives with magnetic disks inside, so all I have to do is take my power drill to it with a half decent drill bit?
Taking a hammer isn't enough. The inside has to be destroyed, not bent.
As for the paper, I was thinking of burning it but is public burning allowed? I was thinking of taking it to the nearby park.
If I tell anyone what's inside, I would have to drill holes / burn them too... just kidding.. or am I ?
__________________
Sometimes we tend to be in despair when the person we love leaves us, but the truth is, it's not our loss, but theirs, for they left the only person who couldn't give up on them.
Make the effort and take the risk..
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." - Eleanor Roosevelt
Smashing things is inelegant, also you never know if people are crazy enough to pick up the pieces eg NSA. Since most of the time the same data is stored on multiple locations you can never be sure if random drilling etc would work either. I assume by the time you realise you need to destroy things, chances are someone would want the info.
You have to understand the magnetic element on the platter are sprayed on the platter. Any strong acid will melt it off. Once the magnetic coating is off, there is no way to recover, even if they get the platters, since the magnetic patterns are stored by location.
The absolute best and easy way: Go to home depot and get some strong acid from the chemical aisle, HCl, or H2SO4. Get a strong tub. Take out the platters of the harddrive, put pour the acid into the tub about 1" depth, then gently put the platter into the tub with tongs. After the bubbling has stopped, turn on the cold tap and gently pour the content into the sink to rinse. You will get some pretty artsy pieces to give to people afterwards. or hang them out in your yard to scare away birds.
Super paranoid, take out the controller board which store the sector info. Most of the time combustion of just paper is not high enough, you can bits of pieces which are just charred but not burnt.
If you burn paper add some powdered aluminum or magnesium to the mix.
Last edited by godwin; 01-05-2014 at 08:09 PM.
Reason: Give some safety tips.
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