destroying the data on a dead HDD

[Turbonium]

How does one go about reliably destroying the data on a HDD that is dead? Normally, I'd zero the drive, but that obviously can't be done to a dead drive.

Is there a "built-in" way to disable a drive by the way?

 

[njdevilsfan87]

1) Freeze it (optional, may make the following step a little bit easier)
2) Use a sledgehammer on it
3) Pour gasoline over the remaining pile of fragments
4) Light on fire

 

[VirtualLarry]

explosives? hammer? drill? acid? Pick one.

Don't put it in the microwave though.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Remove the circuit board from the casing and smash it. At the same time make sure you rip the ribbon cable off the drive in such a way that it cannot be repaired. Honestly though I don't think you need to worry that much.

 

[WilliamM2]

I usually just drive a center punch through the entire drive in two spots. Easy to do, and no flying metel fragments. Set it on a block of scrap wood so you don't damage the floor.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Electromagnet FTW!

 

[Charles Kozierok]

Remove the circuit board from the casing and smash it. At the same time make sure you rip the ribbon cable off the drive in such a way that it cannot be repaired. Honestly though I don't think you need to worry that much.

That's not reliable. Recovery companies can get around that at times.

My solution for this problem is to simply keep any drives that have had any data on them I care about. If I had to get rid of the drive physically, I would open the drive and smash the platters.

 

[Engineer]

I beat them with a hammer.

 

[Belegost]

Salt water, dunk it for a while and let it sit. The platters rust and completely destroy the magnetic state.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Here ya go. Easy solution for cheap bastards that are too lazy to make their own electromagnet. Run one of these on both sides of the HDD and you're done. No disassembly or bashing required, unless you're in to that kind of thing.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Does it still spin? If it does, spin it up with the cover removed and pass a sharp object slowly over the disk from center to end. Repeat again with a blunt object or even sand paper. The first pass will destroy a large chunk of the data, the blunt object and sand paper should help hit the spots you missed by randomly destroying lot of it. Keep in mind the density of hard drives so you most likekly wont mechanically get every single bit,but if you can get like over 50% of it, it's damn near impossible to recover anything.

One thing I also want to try for drives that don't spin up is to put the platter on a grinder and just grind it up against something. Though it would probably be safer to rig something that is stationary.

When I get rid of hard drives I always remove all the platters and dispose of the casings and keep only the platters, I'll scratch them up real quick by hand and mix them around with the rest of em. I have a decent pile I need to get rid of.

Thermite could also be fun. You could probably also get away with throwing them in a camp fire (just the platters) Try to get it right in the core of the fire preferably before you start the fire so they'll be in there the entire time while wood keeps getting added to it. It will basically be embedded with the coals where it gets super hot.

I also made my own degauser using a peice of ABS pipe and tons of turns of copper wire then sending a jolt of high current to it, but without having a way of validating it, I did not trust it so I always end up going with physical destruction.

 

[tweakboy]

Magnet I would think also would do the job.

 

[philipma1957]

CLOROX BLEACH and a plastic diaper pail. 3 bucks for the bleach and 3 bucks for the bucket. soak the drive til the acid kills it. 2 or 3 days tops.

I would say use muriatic acid but that is a lot more dangerous.

 

[cmdrdredd]

what about drilling holes through it with a large bit?

 

[exdeath]

Remove the circuit board from the casing and smash it. At the same time make sure you rip the ribbon cable off the drive in such a way that it cannot be repaired. Honestly though I don't think you need to worry that much.

Wrong. The platter is all that matters. If the platters alone are intact, the rest can be easily replaced.

I've recovered data from numerous drives where the board was replaced, as long as it's the same revision and firmware marked on the platter signature so it will boot ( I mean boot as in the HDD MCU initializing and starting up the drive instead of powering down immediately, not booting in a PC).

Best bet is going to be physical destruction of the platters. .223, .308, etc.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You think someone is gonna actually go through the trouble of all that? What's so incriminating on there?

You guys all sound like a bunch of fear mongers.

When a drive is dead trash it. You think someone digs all the dead HDDs out of the trash and looks at your wedding pictures that you lost there? I guess if it's a drive from business systems then it's different.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You think someone is gonna actually go through the trouble of all that? What's so incriminating on there?

You guys all sound like a bunch of fear mongers.

When a drive is dead trash it. You think someone digs all the dead HDDs out of the trash and looks at your wedding pictures that you lost there?

The government has ways. In the hard drive's life, I'm pretty sure there has been at least one MP3 on it. They find that, and you are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the odds are small the drive gets in the wrong hands and can be traced back to you, it's better to play it safe, it's not that hard.

Drilling it is not enough IMO. I'm sure agencies like NSA have devices that are basically magnetic scanners that just scan the entire surface without it needing to spin or needing a head/hard drive assembly. Then they get the specs from the company as to how the data is aligned on the platters, and then reconstruct it based on it's model, serial number, plant etc... (even drives from the same model can have slight variations as the heads are not always 100% aligned by the factory instrument)

At the very least, platters should be disposed of in separate garbages at different dates. But may as well just destroy the whole thing to be 100% safe.

It's also good to account for techniques they may have in the future. even if they can't get the data now, they might be able to get it in 10,20,50...etc years from now. Destroy it and don't worry.

 

[cmdrdredd]

And they're gonna dig the trash and do that for every drive for a couple MP3 files? You are allowed to have MP3 files anyway, or else nobody would have an iPod.

 

[corkyg]

An oxy-acetylene trorch will really do a job on it, and it is fun. If that is not enough, you really must be a master criminal with serious evidence to hide. In that case - go RCMP!

 

[COPOHawk]

No one suggest shooting it yet? LOL

I like to save up a batch and use my AR-15 on them at the gun range...preferrably on swinging targets

 

[cmdrdredd]

Ranges around here wouldn't let me do that or I would.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Last time I checked, Radio Shack sold a "bulk tape-eraser," which looks like a small clothes iron with the same heft to it. I always assumed that it did the trick when I sent old HDDs to the recycler - or before we had recycling -- to the trash.

This month sees the beginning of season 5 of AMC's "Breaking Bad," with the first episode showing Walt, Jesse and Mike arranging for a large truck and electro-magnet parked in front of the police evidence-locker, so they could erase Gustavo Fring's laptop drive.

Of course, that's fiction, but I'm pretty sure it works in the real world.

Otherwise, take it to the shooting range as a target for your new AR-15. Best that you don't dye your hair orange . . . . Somebody might get the wrong idea . . .

 

[unokitty]

I've always preferred physical destruction. These people have a truck and will send it to your location:

http://www.houstonharddriveshredding.com/

Uno

 

[hhhd1]

4) Light on fire

not a good idea, the fumes might be hazardous.

 

[thelastjuju]

Alternative option:

Stop flattering yourself.

You really think you are that important or special that someone is going to spend hundreds of dollars to repair your broken hard drive in hopes they can bust you on what, some illegal downloads??

Unless this hard drive was used for something like the facilitation of child pornography, serving a piracy warehouse like megaupload, or providing communication for terrorists, the government is NOT coming for your hard drive.

The government has ways. In the hard drive's life, I'm pretty sure there has been at least one MP3 on it. They find that, and you are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the odds are small the drive gets in the wrong hands and can be traced back to you, it's better to play it safe, it's not that hard.

If the government was really interested in prosecuting people at the lowest-level possible like this, they would stand outside every high school and confiscate ipods one by one.. what makes you think they would have more success digging through your discarded and damaged hard drives?