Best way to destroy a hard drive?

[sharkeeper]

This is the best way. All of the other physical methods i've seen on this thread (except for thermite) are ineffective if someone wanted to use an electron microscope to retrieve data of any microscopic sections of the platter left unscathed. Fire won't do much, explosives would break everything into tiny bits, but the data would probably still be recoverable off of the tiny bits. Water, useless, scratching the platters, only destroyes the data on the scratch, everywhere else is still accessable with special tools. The good news is that no one is going to spend tens of thousands of dollars reading damaged platters.

If you have to be ultra safe DoD, will work software wise. Thermite will work for the physical means, but nothing else I've seen posted would do a complete job.


Either I've just helped a paranoid schitzo, or a criminal. If he's a criminal I just hope he's not a pedo or a jihad maniac.

You can scrub, wipe 50 pass, etc. and I can assure you if someone wants the data back they have a better chance then if it's physically damaged. If the disk must truly be destroyed 100% I recommend finding a friend works at a salvage foundry. Throwing any disk in a graphite crucible that's heated to 2200°C will most definitely "terminate" it!

There's other ways to dispose of it on hand but I most certainly will not discuss them in a public forum.


-DAK-

 

[Amorphus]

You can scrub, wipe 50 pass, etc. and I can assure you if someone wants the data back they have a better chance then if it's physically damaged.

nah, wrong. if data is overwritten, then for all intents and purposes, it does not exist, and never has.

 

[DT4K]

I can't believe nobody has suggested nukes.
Build a plutonium bomb around it and detonate.

/Hears knock at door and runs.

Seriously, I would think that melting it down into liquid would do the trick.

 

[sharkeeper]

nah, wrong. if data is overwritten, then for all intents and purposes, it does not exist, and never has.

Oh it most certainly does. Of course I would be violating an Oath that I agreed to back in 1988 if I told you how.

If you think it cannot be found, you're sadly mistaken. No need to fear, however. If you think someone may go to the trouble to get this, don't worry the damage is already done! THEY know what you have and would only like to have some physical evidence to put you away for a very long time!

Since the original poster is concerned with someone getting a client's data, the best bet is to erase the drive (single pass zero fill) and re-use it somewhere else. Physical interaction is only needed if the drive is in a non operational state.

As for the post regarding filling the drive with pyrodex or other propellant; DON'T! That paragraph was for entertainment purposes ONLY!

I can't believe nobody has suggested nukes.

The NRC licensing for those materials strictly prohibits such use. If you're caught with unlicensed material as mentioned, you better hold it between your legs before they haul you away! :Q

-DAK-

 

[buleyb]

you took an oath? what a sham. Doctors take oaths, people with clearance just sign papers.

Physics make the rules, not the government. 7 passes in the proper writing order destroys the residual magnetic field left by the original data. writing zeros accomplishes, even cheap unerase wizards can pull back zeroed data. Destroying the drive is for show. If it really was as black-ops as you make it out to be, then why bother trying, they already have a copy and your clone is waiting in limbo to replace you...

 

[martind1]

Oh it most certainly does. Of course I would be violating an Oath that I agreed to back in 1988 if I told you how.

Ya I was a boyscout once too. I took the same oath.


Seriously though dude. You need to get you some schooling. Hard drive work on magnetic fields. Read up about them. You have no idea what you are talkign about, so drop the mysterious MiB crap. Zero fill? Thats pretty funny. That must be why there are all those fancy programs. They are all zero fill programs.


I have to go wash my cyborg now.

 

[sharkeeper]

Ya I was a boyscout once too. I took the same oath.


Seriously though dude. You need to get you some schooling. Hard drive work on magnetic fields. Read up about them. You have no idea what you are talkign about, so drop the mysterious MiB crap. Zero fill? Thats pretty funny. That must be why there are all those fancy programs. They are all zero fill programs.


I have to go wash my cyborg now.

I'm not even going to waste my time or anyone else's going any further with this.

<plonk>

-DAK-

 

[martind1]

I'm not even going to waste my time or anyone else's going any further with this.

It is too late you have already taken this too far with your misinformed information.

Here is the thign to do on forums. If you don't know the answer don't respond. noone needs some guy spouting off buzzwords that gives bad advice.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam

nah, wrong. if data is overwritten, then for all intents and purposes, it does not exist, and never has.

Oh it most certainly does. Of course I would be violating an Oath that I agreed to back in 1988 if I told you how.

If you think it cannot be found, you're sadly mistaken. No need to fear, however. If you think someone may go to the trouble to get this, don't worry the damage is already done! THEY know what you have and would only like to have some physical evidence to put you away for a very long time!

Since the original poster is concerned with someone getting a client's data, the best bet is to erase the drive (single pass zero fill) and re-use it somewhere else. Physical interaction is only needed if the drive is in a non operational state.

As for the post regarding filling the drive with pyrodex or other propellant; DON'T! That paragraph was for entertainment purposes ONLY!

I can't believe nobody has suggested nukes.

The NRC licensing for those materials strictly prohibits such use. If you're caught with unlicensed material as mentioned, you better hold it between your legs before they haul you away! :Q

-DAK-

It's not some big secret, mister NSA.
We all know that after formatting a drive or even writing over every bit, there are ways of measuring the magnetic field to determine what was previously there. But the point is that there are techniques that make it impossible by any known means to recover the data that was on the drive.

 

[TheGrandHooHa]

Take a milling machine to it, and just shave off little bits/tracks at a time. Those little tiny shreds of aluminum won't be recovered. Could always melt the aluminum at a later time, or dissolve it.

If you're using a glass platter drive... not sure there. Make a christmas tree decoration from it or something. I don't think anyone has ever tried data recovery from a "My First Christmas" ornament

 

[Kipper]

1 pound of C-4. But since you can't get access to that so easily, you could do what my friend from southwest Virginia did and take a 12-gauge and about six shells to it.

Pieces of hard drive platters all over his front lawn.

 

[TheGrandHooHa]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease

Pieces of hard drive platters all over his front lawn.

Bet it was fun to hit them with the lawnmower... and it probably makes interesting mulch.

 

[KeithP]

Just put a sticker on the drive that says "IBM Deskstar 75GXP" I bet nobody will bother with it then.

-KeithP

 

[Xionide]

Just open the damn thing up you lazy bastage. Then plug it on into an old AT power supply. Turn it on. Heres the fun part. Remeber in kindergarten when they had those things that spun a piece of paper and you would drop paint on it to make spirals. Well take a Nice and do the same thing. I think it was called spin art. Anyway do that to all the platters and then get a Mr.T style heavy gold necklace and put the platter on it and wear it. And you could start calling yourself Mr.E- or something cool like that.

-Xionide

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Xionide
Just open the damn thing up you lazy bastage. Then plug it on into an old AT power supply. Turn it on. Heres the fun part. Remeber in kindergarten when they had those things that spun a piece of paper and you would drop paint on it to make spirals. Well take a Nice and do the same thing. I think it was called spin art. Anyway do that to all the platters and then get a Mr.T style heavy gold necklace and put the platter on it and wear it. And you could start calling yourself Mr.E- or something cool like that.

-Xionide

Hehe, sounds like fun!

I think I'm going to find an old 1GB WD drive I have somewhere here and mess with that and blow it up or something... hmmm...

 

[calfpheen]

FIRE!

 

[OoteR02]

IF i were going to try to physically destroy it.. i'd use a belt sander with an oxide/carbide type paper. Recover that.

 

[BennyD]

i'd suggest tipping the drive vertical, then drilling a hole in the top

then fill the entire inside with some kind of corosive like drain cleaner or some kind of acid

this should provide 100% security

 

[buleyb]

Originally posted by: KeithP
Just put a sticker on the drive that says "IBM Deskstar 75GXP" I bet nobody will bother with it then.

-KeithP

Now thats a real world solution