• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Destroy a hard drive on purpose ?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
all this stupid advice...
1. If you DO put them in the trash (please dont, toxic) then they are going to an unnamed dump and will not be trackable to you personally (so no reason for anyone to spend all the money and effort recovering random doc files and trying to match it to a person based on the data inside)... it will never be trackable... But since your trash can be intercepted...
2. you want a strong magnet to eliminate the data, nothing, not even melthing, comes close to the effectiveness of a simple degauss in erasing data from a magnetic drive. Permanently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing

basically, get a strong electro magnet and putt he drive next to it. dont use it IN THE HOUSE since a strong enough magnet (the kind used in degaussing) could destroy electronic equipment from quite some distance away.
 
Hmm... I think I read something about how the NSA or FBI or something destroyed data, a few years ago; first, they would write over all the data a couple of times, I think 3 is the DoD standard and 7 is the NSA standard. After that, they would shred/slice the platters into little 1/4" by 1/4" squares and mix them up, and then after that they would melt it all together - and at the end of the article, they even mentioned that all that wasn't a 100% surefire way to delete data. How that works out, I don't know...
 
Originally posted by: Sheninat0r
Hmm... I think I read something about how the NSA or FBI or something destroyed data, a few years ago; first, they would write over all the data a couple of times, I think 3 is the DoD standard and 7 is the NSA standard. After that, they would shred/slice the platters into little 1/4" by 1/4" squares and mix them up, and then after that they would melt it all together - and at the end of the article, they even mentioned that all that wasn't a 100% surefire way to delete data. How that works out, I don't know...
Click to expand...

Its simple... its called making up work. The only one who can recover data from that is god, but he is a fictional character, so no, there is no way to restore them from that.
But that doesn't stop government organizations from posting guards to watch over the melted metal balls in case someone tries to reconstruct the data that once resided on them, laughable. (there is a poster here whose in the navy and actually had to guard metal slug from HDDs... god disciplined when he commented that only god could recover any data from that)

Shredding and melting is absolutely unnecessary, if you want to be protected against imaginary alien technology (since regular degauss prevents all manner of conceiveable recovery with today's technology). you should just using varying magnetic fields to scramble the data in an unpredictable manner.

Shredding and melthing is completely pointless, shredding is less effective then magnetic fields, and melting is just a waste of resources, but is perfectly effective at eliminating data... taking that well erased hard drive, formatting it, and putting it back on the market actually makes MORE sense. Because constant use by the recipient will serve to much more effectively reerase data against magical alien god creatures with super nanotech that is based on models of physics that we haven't even dreamed up yet. Assuming it could ever be tracked down...

There is software that just writes random 0 and 1 on all your data many times... 3-7 times typically, takes around 40 hours, but is the best solution for a home user that cant get a 1000+$ electromagnet to do it in a second (literally).
End result is identical, the data is gone.

Actually you know what... i wonder if aliens or the paranormal IS the reason that they erase, shred, melt AND guard the leftovers... The only question is, were they serious (like project MK-Ultra), or were they half joking and hoping to get more taxpayer money (like the gay bomb)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mk_ultra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb

These are the same people who came up with those ridiculous methods of data security "methods"... except their data security methods are SLIGHTLY more scientific and sane...
 
Originally posted by: heymrdj
.375 Magnum hollowpoint, 30o6 rifle, 12ga. shotgun loaded with 00buckshot. All of it's fun 😀
Click to expand...

Given that they're Deathstar HDDs (as per the OP) surely it would be more appropriate to send in a flight of the Rebel Alliance's X-wing fighters and have the offending items blasted by laser canons?
 
Originally posted by: taltamir
all this stupid advice...
1. If you DO put them in the trash (please dont, toxic) then they are going to an unnamed dump and will not be trackable to you personally (so no reason for anyone to spend all the money and effort recovering random doc files and trying to match it to a person based on the data inside)... it will never be trackable...
Click to expand...
There are quite a few files that would have personally identifiable data and are easy to find:
Turbo Tax files with your name, SSN, phone, address, bank acount number, etc.)
Microsoft Office files (user name)
Email files (likely lots of passwords in them)
 
This is taken a bit out of context.. sure it could be tracked to you...
if someone at waste disposal facilities decided to open random trash bags full of festering rotten food and sift through them, somehow fished it out of the dumpster before it went through the compactor and incinerator... (assuming your specific trash bag was ever found at the bottom of the dump truck / dumpster) took a broken hard drive they found in the dumpster to a data recovery center, when the recovery center fixes the drive and tells them it was formatted explained that they forgot to mention how the "accidently" formatted it right before it broke (i am assuming you weren't crafty enough to delete specific sensitive files while leaving the drive unformatted, as a way of hiding a needle in a haystack)... and wanted to recover all the files from that, and then sifted through the files recovered. (do drive data recovery companies even offer to recover data from a disk that is both formatted AND broken at the same time? do they offer recovery of "accidental formats at all").

So yes, if I do not even delete any specific files or format, and don't do any basic breakage (snap off the SATA plug), and throw it will all the data completely readable as soon as it is plugged in, in a clean trashcan containing no organics (solids quickly fester into this horrible black liquid that literally melts a hole in the trash bag and smells like torture). and then someone in the trash disposal company randomly dug through it and found it, and knew enough about computers...
You get the point.

also... "your name, SSN, phone, address, bank acount number, etc" - easily acquired info
 
It is pretty incredible that so many people here have conjectured and actually tried so many ways to destroy these old devices.

The real pity is that there's so much "obsolete" computer / IT / electronics "junk" to be disposed of at all, and no good way to recycle / reuse / incrementally upgrade it. To make matters worse the "Design For Obsolescence / Design For Failure" attitude has caught on with the manufacturers and now they do everything possible to ensure that there's no continuing usability of most products past several months or a couple of years if you're lucky. They conspire to make any actual repair, salvage, or recycling all but impossible.

Preserving privacy in disposing of IT gear is a good idea, but preserving the planet's ecosystems / natural resources through smart recycling options for all IT gear (and all other consumer / industrial products) is the elephant in the room that nobody's talking about enough.

It is especially annoying that even when there are old devices that can still be useful for some purpose but they're intentionally crippled by lack of software support, for instance, many wireless networking devices without current drivers or security updates, sound cards without current drivers, etc. After a manufacturer declares the end of support for a given model of device they should (if they haven't already) openly publish the specifications / schematics / source code for the hardware / firmware / software so that people who do still want to use them can do so by their own efforts.

Certainly a lot of perfectly good devices like hard discs have plenty of still useful components in them like motors, sensors, position encoders, etc. that could be directly reused for various things like art projects, toys, educational electromechanical learning projects, etc. but rarely ever are just because the uncaring manufacturers don't even bother to help anyone recycle these components by specifying their operational characteristics / connections, and this same thing prevents effective repair of devices that would still be usable but for some minor easily repaired fault.

These days they even hard-seal the *battery* and *fuse* inside many kinds of electronics so after you blow the fuse or after the battery wears out after the first 300 or so charges the whole device is effectively useless lacking any easy way to replace a part that should be easily replaced.

As for hard discs, the best privacy option is to never store sensitive data on there that isn't in some kind of secured / protected form. Next one can certainly bulk erase the platters by degaussing them if you have the equipment or patience to take them apart and use a strong magnet over the naked platters at very close range. Sanding / grinding off the platter surfaces would work too, of course. You could put them in a kiln and take them above the curie point of the media to effectively erase them, though you'd melt / char most everything in there too unless you removed the platters and did the heating to them only.

I don't quite understand anyone who'd burn the whole drives or even just the platters with lots of fuel like gasoline or wood products; that'd be quite a waste of energy / materials and would cause a lot of unnecessary pollution for a really excessive and misguided strategy of erasure.
It's a bit silly to complain about smog and the price of gas and global warming and whatever and go around torching electronics for no particularly good reason probably generating a lot of toxic smoke.

Also I'm quite shocked to see people resorting to saws / chisels et. al. to take apart old drives; usually they're quite easy to just unscrew in my experience, though I suppose some may be harder than others to get inside.

I've seen a lot of replies about people burning / shooting these things, but not one about taking the parts out and doing something of any hack value with the guts, kind of amazing for this board. Not one HDD -> clock or mobile or art project or anything?!
I think we're slipping into a neolithic era again or something. 🙂

 
actually i suggested reformatting (maybe multiple times with a randomizer software) it and selling it on ebay. The best recycling is to resell the product to someone who will use it.

I agree that EOL items should have their specs and source code for drivers published, but it aint gonna happen soon.

And soldering the battery inside the device like apple does is downright criminal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top