Do Not Sell My Personal Information Jump to content


Failed Hard Drives


Parthiban
 Share

Recommended Posts

I've got a couple of hard drives that are dead, and wanted to know what's the best way to get rid of them? As they're dead I can't use one of those kill disc type programs, so how can I make sure that no one can get any data off them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My idea of therapy.

1. Get your hard drives

2. Go into a quiet room where you won't be disturbed.

3. Think of the stresses and strains of the day

4. Pick up lump hammer/hammer

5. Hit hard drives repeated until they are totally damaged

Repeat 4 an 5 until satisfied :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The other option is to use a power drill and drill through the platters - but I prefer the hammer - its more exercise :P :blush:

Drilling could be fun too, no harm in doing both! :winky:

Link to comment
Share on other sites


The other option is to use a power drill and drill through the platters - but I prefer the hammer - its more exercise :P :blush:

Drilling could be fun too, no harm in doing both! :winky:

Now I'm intrigued to know what your hiding............. :shifty:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I'm intrigued to know what your hiding............. :shifty:

Lol, nothing except a craving for destruction :lol:

But if I see a silver aristo outside my house, I'll make sure to hide the bins :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've drilled them in work in the past. Wrecked a few bits doing it, too!

Apparently a microwave oven will destroy the data on the platters completely, no data recovery method will get that back. I read it in some interview with a forensic data recovery engineer, these guys do weird stuff like steer the drive heads slightly off course to read the edges of the data track where it's not been overwritten by the track above, or read the data and check the strength of the bit: a 1 will be a stronger 1 if it was 1 before being overwritten, compared to a 1 that overwrote a 0.

Of course, don't do this with your fancy built-in microwave in the kitchen! Go buy a thirty-quid job from Asda, once you've finished frying drive platters you can use it for microwaving lightbulbs (they glow), CDs (they arc), matches (ball lightning!), soap (it grows), wire wool (like a substation fire in a box) or whatever.

"don't try this at home" :whistling:

Oh, and I second the bit with the magnets - they make cracking fridge magnets for holding tea towels, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Be careful with those magnets - they really are powerful. Two of them can snap together and catch your fingers painfully. They also made my (rather expensive) mechanical watch run 10 minutes fast per day, until I sent it back to be recalibrated. Not sure quite how it managed that, but it did!! Must have moved something inside I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Be careful with those magnets - they really are powerful. Two of them can snap together and catch your fingers painfully. They also made my (rather expensive) mechanical watch run 10 minutes fast per day, until I sent it back to be recalibrated. Not sure quite how it managed that, but it did!! Must have moved something inside I guess.

You need a Tissot watch like mine they are magnet proof!! Not that I would risk trying with an expensive Swis watch :blush: that would be like saying "this ship is unsinkable"

Drilling the disks is the best way to destroy data and make the disk unreadable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, so is my Breitling, officially. Except, it would appear, for magnets of that power!!! I shan't be letting one get close to it again, that's for sure...

The urban legends suggest you can use these magnets to silently disable things like electricity and gas meters, too... The theory is that they pull on metal components so strongly that they no longer rotate freely in their bearings (which aren't designed to resist that sort of treatment). Then they let the electricity or gas flow through but the little wheels and cogs are all locked up and don't move the numbers round... This is, obviously, highly illegal!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, so is my Breitling, officially. Except, it would appear, for magnets of that power!!! I shan't be letting one get close to it again, that's for sure...

The urban legends suggest you can use these magnets to silently disable things like electricity and gas meters, too... The theory is that they pull on metal components so strongly that they no longer rotate freely in their bearings (which aren't designed to resist that sort of treatment). Then they let the electricity or gas flow through but the little wheels and cogs are all locked up and don't move the numbers round... This is, obviously, highly illegal!!!

Anyone any spare magnet :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share



×
×
  • Create New...