Over write it by smashing it open with a hammer and degaussing the drive disks.
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Scrapping Desktop - How To Safeguard Data?
- Thread starter George7941
- Start date
I smash up the hard drives, bend up the discs and take the magnets. 
Those things are powerful. At one time I thought would be good to put one on the oil filter but forgot all about it and they are on the side of my tool box right now.
Those things are powerful. At one time I thought would be good to put one on the oil filter but forgot all about it and they are on the side of my tool box right now.If you dont work for the NSA that would be sufficient. Then throw out one side at a time.
Could the NSA really get useable data from a HDD that was chopped in half?
Got me but I can assume they can do anything. As it is, they have every Americans phone calls to phone numbers and text messages ever sent, compressed, encrypted and stored in a data base.
I’d still run the Linux destroy drive on it. The quick format likely just destroys the mapping table of where data is with your data sitting out there waiting to be overwritten.
One of those magnets and a touch of epoxy glue was perfect for securing a pal's fuel filler flap.
Thank goodness the flap was steel.
I remember there's a software the can write random data on every sector to dilute the residual prior magnetic field on the disk, and after 6 passes the previous data would be diluted into background noise (so people with electron microscope can't extract the data off it). This should be sufficient for non military grade data, no need to drill holes and the drive can be used for backup or off premise disaster recovery. Forgot the name of this software.
SSD would need another way to do it without wasting the finite erase and program cycles. There is usually a trim command to mark everything as ready for erase and you lose the FTL info and scrambler key (and maybe other keys on top of that), most likely the SSD manufacturer has a tool to do it fast and simple, as long as you are not storing military grade data on it.
SSD would need another way to do it without wasting the finite erase and program cycles. There is usually a trim command to mark everything as ready for erase and you lose the FTL info and scrambler key (and maybe other keys on top of that), most likely the SSD manufacturer has a tool to do it fast and simple, as long as you are not storing military grade data on it.
From casual user yes. If you have the will you can use an electron microscope to pick up the magnetic field off a broken platter to reconstruct a large portion of the data. That's why military always grind up something to dust or melt things down to metal.
Most civilians don't have something that worth the effort.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Nail thru or drill, shooting a hole thru it is also an option
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+safely+and+securely+destroy+hard+disk+data/140673
Am shopping for a new PC and ur idea of shooting this slow SOB I have now is appealing!
Wipe it with a cloth
Just keep in mind you may want to maintain distance if using a handgun to reduce shrapnel splatter, 22LR may not work well thou. Use eye protection.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
.22lr bounces off, as does 00-buck much of the time (at least with desktop drives).
I used to take the magnets out first then hit them with a hammer. Recent magnets are useful but really old drives had very strong magnets. I have half a dozen magnets stuck on the metal tins in my workshop.
The Deathstar name was well deserved! I built a lot of PCs at that time and those had a sky high failure rate.
