- Thread starter norsa
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octo0072000
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Guys, have a couple of towers that wont boot up so as they are aged, will take them to the local recycling centre. If I remove the hard drives will that be all I need to do for personal data security?
Nick:
that's all you need to do
also if you strip the hard drives you get some very strong magnets out of them
Magnets from hard drives can be so strong they are dangerous.
If you want to give the discs away or sell them there's software which will overwrite the entire surface several times to US government standards. Formatting the drives would be enough to put off the mildly curious with some technical knowledge.
If you want to make sure nothing is recoverable by any normal means, take off the covers and give the platters a few good hits with a hammer and cold chisel so they are bent and scoured.
If you want to give the discs away or sell them there's software which will overwrite the entire surface several times to US government standards. Formatting the drives would be enough to put off the mildly curious with some technical knowledge.
If you want to make sure nothing is recoverable by any normal means, take off the covers and give the platters a few good hits with a hammer and cold chisel so they are bent and scoured.
madkayaker
Pro sparkey Pro Welder
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We have a piece of kit at work that will turn a hard drive to sand in under 15 secs 
rockweasel
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I like to overwrite the hard drive several times with an angle grinder.
the snooper
getting older by the day
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why not keep the drives and buy a usb to IDE or SATA which ever they are and use for backing up files
DrNik
Heath Robinsons long lost son
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hey hitch is anything left after squishing it with 250 tonnes, id expect it to vaporise
i did last week get a computer from the local scrapyard, plugged it in and low and behold it belonged to a local taxi company with their customer accounts and interesting emails and company letters and memo's, tut tut
i did last week get a computer from the local scrapyard, plugged it in and low and behold it belonged to a local taxi company with their customer accounts and interesting emails and company letters and memo's, tut tut
It's silly and irresponsible to get rid of a computer with no regard to what's on the discs, especially so that it can just be plugged in and fire up.
If you take the drive out and toss it 12ft up so it lands on concrete, that will wreck it as far as most people are concerned. If you gouge and wreck the controller board with a screwdriver for good measure that would mean that to read it you'd at least need a working disc of exactly the same sort, which wouldn't be much good if the disc had been dropped in concrete.
wristpin
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the snooper
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Please explain
they can trap you skin between them if you're not careful
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The ones I've got which came out of an old 5 1/2" drive can't be pulled apart with a straight pull, by anyone. When then come together they can't be controlled and you can just see them taking the end of your finger off if it gets in the way. They are seriously powerful.
When I had dealings with a hard drive production line it was standing orders not to play with the magnets, and having played with a pair, I can see why.
the snooper
getting older by the day
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Please explain
Even ones from a normal 3.5" drive are scarily strong!
You'd never believe two little curved bits of metal about 1.5mm thick could be so powerful.
You really should get hold of a couple and have a play!
Hard drives also make great subjects for macro photography:
hard drive stacked by Wozzaaah, on Flickr
That is a stacked shot using software called Zerene Stacker, can't remember how many shots I used but quite a few.
outofthefire
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For gods sake they're only neodymium magnets they might give you a nasty blood blister but so will hammer if you miss and hit your hand. The health and safety warnings on here are getting beyond pathetic
