best way to destroy a hard-disk drive
 

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?

Open it and rub a magnet all over it.

As for the paper, if it's a few sheets use a large ziploc bag and water. It'll turn it into pulp.

whats in there.

Kill it with fire :die:

drill holes in it

Assuming that your drive is a magnetic spindle type of hard drive, secure erase / data sanitization/destruction programs is what you are looking for.

SDelete -- SDelete
Eraser -- Eraser | Internet Security and Privacy

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.

very curious about whats in it.
sounds like some serious evidence.

note to self: tiger_handheld might be a hitmen.

Is this picture related to anything on that hard drive?

http://i.imgur.com/UuENGng.png

+1
This is what large corporations do. Grab a power drill and have fun with it.

Then if you insist - throw it in the ocean / etc.

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.

If you read the op he was gonna chuck it in water so I doubt he's gonna be reusing it.

Writing 0 alone isn't enough. 7 pass wipes include 0, 1, random, etc.

Microwave it

Thermite is your only option.
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as for the paper.. take a shit and wipe your ass with it.. im sure no one would ever touch it :troll:

i would take a hammer to it lol

Exactly, didn't you watch Argo? :D

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 ?

Most HD platters are made of glass, and will shatter like glass.

You can also burn paper undisturbed at the Chinese section of most cemeteries. They commonly have burners for the public.

You could always grab a torx screwdriver to take apart the drive and then smash the platters inside. Just make sure u smash outside.

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.

take a hammer and hammer it tillt he HDD is into tiny little pieces as for the paper why not just burn it?

im willing to have holes drilled in me for the team. whats in it? :troll:

write 0s and 1s to it using software like acronis. i usually do it twice then use a slug hammer to kill break the drive just for fun lol