I'm doing a bit of house cleaning and need to dispose of a couple of old computers (newest is 10 years old) that do not boot up any more. I have a place to recycle and have removed the hard drives so no personal information can be obtained. Now my question. What is the best way to dispose of the hard drives? Take a hammer to it? I do not have access to a good electromagnet so that's out.
Andy
Burn Barrel
I believe that a drill will work well also. Anything to disrupt the spinning action.
A drill or a hammer and nail are the fastest and surest ways to be sure nobody but NSA will ever read from that disk.
But if you've got time to play with disassembling it, there's a wonderfully powerful magnet in the head positioner that I will usually remove as a toy before warping the disk.
> But if you've got time to play with disassembling it, there's a wonderfully powerful magnet in the head positioner that I will usually remove as a toy before warping the disk.
I always take them apart, too, and have a bunch of the magnets around. You have to be careful with them, as they're very brittle; if you let two of them snap together, they can shatter and send shrapnel flying in unpredictable directions. It's a serious eye hazard.
I don't bother destroying the disks, as I think the danger of anyone going to the trouble of acquiring them, restoring them to readable condition, and finding anything of interest on them is too small to worry about. Instead, I toss them in a bin with a bunch of other miscellaneous metal junk that I keep around. You never know when you're going to need a thin circle of steel, right? I mean, it *could* happen, right?
Save them till the next really frustrating day you have. Then take out your frustrations on them with a sledge hammer. Almost as good therapy as a machette cutting brush!
Based on current events, the IRS is good at ...
destroying hard drives. That's what they're telling Congress, anyway.
😛
Really want to ruin a hard drive ...
RELY on it
... every hard drive I'v really relied on has given up the ghost...........:-P
Remember what they did to the copier in "Office Space"?
> ...What is the best way to dispose of the hard drives?
A couple of my friends do this: Get all the files you want on some external device, take apart said computer and remove the hard drive, then go fishing. Toss that baby in a frisbee like manner into the deepest part of the lake. I hear the shiny part will attract fish, so you may even get dinner out of the deal.
Use it to sight in your deer rifle.
I was thinking 9mm
I've still got some old #4 lead shot that's not legal for duck anymore. If I can figure out how to put the hard drive in a skeet thrower that might work.
Andy