Erase data from a broken S4

[Anon_lawyer]

My Galaxy S4 power button broke, and is permanently pressed. This wasn't so bad until I turned it off, opened it up, and tried to fix it. It seems like the sensor is broken - it's not a mechanical problem that I can fix. Now I can't turn it back on. It starts to boot, but holding the button apparently aborts the turn-on procedure.

Fortunately, before doing that I made sure all my data was backed up and bought an S6.

Unfortunately, I can't find a way to erase the data on the phone. Does anyone have any advice about how to securely erase a phone that won't turn on? The only two options I can think of are the 'back of the closet and forget about it' option, and the 'hammer time' option. Ideally I'd like to toss it in a phone recycling box without worrying.

 

[Crono]

Disassemble using iFixit guide and dump the parts in a bucket of acid (or saltwater, if you don't potentially want noxious fumes, but you would have to leave it in there for a while to be sure).

If you could turn it on it would be easy to encrypt and secure wipe the internal storage. If you can get into fastboot you could wipe the partition and all your data either over USB/ADB (see the fastboot erase command) or on the device via recovery. If you can't even get to fastboot/recovery, though, I'm not sure how to access the internal storage to wipe it.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Physical destruction of the Flash chip is the likely best solution. Dissassemble, then break apart the Fpash storage chip, then submerge in salt water for good measure.

 

[Anon_lawyer]

Disassemble using iFixit guide and dump the parts in a bucket of acid (or saltwater, if you don't potentially want noxious fumes, but you would have to leave it in there for a while to be sure).

If you could turn it on it would be easy to encrypt and secure wipe the internal storage. If you can get into fastboot you could wipe the partition and all your data either over USB/ADB (see the fastboot erase command) or on the device via recovery. If you can't even get to fastboot/recovery, though, I'm not sure how to access the internal storage to wipe it.

Yeah, no matter what I try it aborts the boot after a second or two. Sounds like destroying the flash is the way to go.

 

[Oyeve]

Microwave for a few seconds.