Hard drive disposal

[BadgerBadger]

What's the best way to dispose of a knackered hard drive to ensure all the porn *ahem* data is unreadable.

 

I've read everything from a hammer, a magnet, a drill to open it up and smear it with dog sh1te

 

whats the best way my techy friends?

[Guest Dark Sotonic Mills]

A microwave will cause it all sorts of problems. Mind you, the Fire Brigade will berate you afterwards and your insurance company will be none too pleased either...

[gonzo]

Try a chainsaw. But be careful, obviously.

[lettuce]

Send it to me, I'll ensure it is *ahem* disposed of.

[Dr Who?]

So you want rid of your hard drive so other never see what is on it, or do you just want to take it down the local recycling place?

[mdearlove]

open it up by undoing all the screws you see - take all the bits out. Rub the magnets you get from inside (very powerful) all over the platters. Use platters as coasters for a few months then break into pieces and scatter

[Pancake]

Leave it a month and wang it on a bonfire. I did that last year with a few external drives I had.

[Saint_Jonny]

I just use a big fat drill whe I want to kill a HDD, stick a few holes in the ****er and no one will be able to get anything from it

[Channon's Windmill]

I used a hammer. Does the job and is rather satisfying to smash the **** out of something!

[saint_stevo]

i do a low level format and then smash it with a hammer

[Al de Man]

Overwrite the data with zeros. I believe some clever bods have still managed to recover data from the latent magnetic signature after one overwrite, but it's just a question of whether they'd bother for the sake of some porn. To be on the safe side, you could follow that by filling it with ones, then zeroes, then ones,... seven passes should do the trick.

[SuperMikey]

Smash it to f*ck with a hammer and then burn it on a bonfire. Simples.

[dickyhale]

I took the old computer apart and left the hard drive (in bits) in a bucket of water.lefted it for over a week..Its dead now.

[Deppo]

Tell Cortese that Alan Pardew slept with it.

[Smirking_Saint]

I took the old computer apart and left the hard drive (in bits) in a bucket of water.lefted it for over a week..Its dead now.

 

Water will do f*ck all to the data found within the disks.

 

I do a couple of runs of a PC test programme i have on destructive write testing, i let it run for about an hour then give it a good smash and take it down the tip.

 

TBH though, it probably isn't worth it i doubt many will take the trouble to get any data off a smashed HD, unless you are in trouble with the police ?

[Whitey Grandad]

Dismantle it right down to the metal disc itself. Scratch a screwdriver across it a few times. Then use it as a coaster and never let it out of your sight. You should be ok. The magnets are quite cool though.

[Son of Bob]

Unless you have something illegal on your drive I wouldn't worry about it. Who do you need to hide this 'data' from?

[SOTONS EAST SIDE]

Get some Sodium Hypochlorite or Citric acid(proper stuff) and coat the platters with either and leave for 3-5 days. Then watch how either start to eat away at them! no recovering the data then.

[Mark``]

If something is on there that shouldn't be, it doesn't matter what you do to it. Data can still be recovered by the police. But Yesss, Any Data that is on there that you might delete on your computer will still be there forever. until its written over by new data. Probably best way is to burn it.

[Red&White]

Burn burn burn it is the best way for us ordinary bods

[FMPR]

Go on a day trip to France and drop it in the channel

[Matthew Le God]

You used one of your three posts for that! ^

[Robsk II]

I was wondering this too - if it IS only porn, and legal porn, why so worried? Paedophiles, financial companies and spies need to go to this length. Not most of us.

[SuperMikey]

I think the porn bit was just an aside comment, he's probably got all kinds of personal information on there including bank details etc. That stuff can be stolen and used, and is all the time.

I wouldn't want to see my bank account drained by somebody who was digging around in a scrapheap for hard-drives. You need to get rid of that kind of thing properly and effectively.

[Jeff Le Taxi]

Fire, and LOTS OF it, its the only way.

[Jeff Le Taxi]

I was wondering this too - if it IS only porn, and legal porn, why so worried? Paedophiles, financial companies and spies need to go to this length. Not most of us.

 

Rob's had his sense of humour bypass i see!

[hutch]

I've still got the hard drive out of every computer I've ever got rid of, all in a box somewhere with labels on.

 

Am I just wierd?

[BadgerBadger]

Was worried about financial data and passwords. I have now taken it apart and given the platers a good seeing to, cheers for most of your inputs.