Destroying old internal hard drives.

[Tommy]

Since the mid '90s I've disposed of three outdated desktop computers. In each case I dutifully removed the internal hard drives, saving their destruction for someday in the future. Well, "someday" finally came. I've gone online to learn how to permanently destroy them with little success, so I'm asking for advice.

All three are what I assume to be standard Seagate hard drives. They contain financial, medical, and other personal data that I don't really want to be just floating around somewhere. Internet instructions seem to fall into one of two categories. Either:

1. Use a program designed to to overwrite the drive multiple times. Too late for that; those computers are long gone. I bought a USB adapter to try to access them from my current computer but it couldn't even find the drives.

2. Disassemble the drive and . . . Hmmm - therein lies the problem. These instructions start by telling me to remove all of the screws to open up the drive. None of my drives are held together with normal screws, but rather what look like round headed rivets with a small round dimple in the center of the head. I was eventually able to destroy one drive by drilling out the "screws". It took a very loooong time, a lot of muscle, and destroyed two good drill bits to accomplish this. I then removed the metal disk and, with a bench vise and a big hammer, finally managed to bend it to a point where I consider it safe to throw away. I don't really want to have to do that again for the other two.

So, any suggestions from anyone on the forum? The only other suggestion I've found was to shoot holes through it with a high-powered rifle . . . probably not the best solution.

 

[John cycling]

Drill a couple of big holes through each one.

 

[-Oy-]

I've done this a few times and it works.

Place the drive on a hard surface. Take a sledgehammer and give it a good whack 3 or 4 times until it splits. In each case the actual drives inside had shattered. Quite satisfying too

 

[birdy]

I've done this a few times and it works.

Place the drive on a hard surface. Take a sledgehammer and give it a good whack 3 or 4 times until it splits. In each case the actual drives inside had shattered. Quite satisfying too

Haha...I tried this. It didn't work for me. Think I need more muscles. Or maybe stop closing my eyes when I swing that sledgehammer

 

[jimintoronto]

Perhaps a cutting torch, or a really BIG magnet. Or this link. Top 5 Hard Drive Destruction Methods That Actually Work

JImB.

 

[Lara]

I dutifully removed the internal hard drives, saving their destruction for someday in the future. Well, "someday" finally came
So, any suggestions from anyone on the forum?

You might want to ask the expert...Hillary

Me...

 

[Nathan]

You might want to ask the expert...Hillary

 

[Lara]

 

[Nathan]

Drill holes, smack with sledgehammers, or use strong magnet if you have one. Most hard drives have a small ribbon cable on the underside, you can grab that with pliers and yank that out. Any damage you can do to the green PCB board will make the drive inaccessable to all but the FBI or CIA.

 

[Muskrat]

Or….bury it in the garden and water well.

 

[Colleen]

What would happen if you threw it in a bonfire? Would it disintegrate and destroy it? Explode?

How about a shotgun blast? Use it like a clay target?

 

[Knight]

Hammer & cement floor works. Usually within 3 or 4 good hard blows the casing opens. Once exposed the part/disk that holds the info can be destroyed beyond ability to restore/remove any data.

 

[Grampa Don]

Depending on where you live, do you have space for a bonfire? The case might survive, but the internals would be toast. The fumes might not be too healthy though. The magnetic coating on the disk will lose its data if it is heated above its curie temperature. It's probably nickel and that would be about 700 degrees F.

 

[Nathan]

What would happen if you threw it in a bonfire? Would it disintegrate and destroy it? Explode?

How about a shotgun blast? Use it like a clay target?

Some of the materials would give off some potentially toxic fumes. The PCB board, and plastic components would burn stinky, at best.

 

[birdy]

What would happen if you threw it in a bonfire? Would it disintegrate and destroy it? Explode?

How about a shotgun blast? Use it like a clay target?

Have you been practicing your skeet shooting?

 

[Buckeye]

Hmmm. many old men discover that, over time, their hard drive has turned into a floppy.

ymmv

 

[papa tiger]

CLAMP ONE end of it in a bench vise real tight crushing the [power receptacles] and then totally crush it with a sledge leaving junk, Sweep it up, put it in a plastic baggy and dispose of it. The plastic baggy is for the Dump Rat that chews its way in and then suffocates from so much knowledge.

 

[His Dudeness]

1. Obtain a 55 gallon drum
2. place hard drives inside.
3. add gasoline.
4. Drop in a match.

 

[hollydolly]

1. Obtain a 55 gallon drum
2. place hard drives inside.
3. add gasoline.
4. Drop in a match.

poison the rest of the community.....

 

[dilettante]

Have you been practicing your skeet shooting?

Reminds me of one hilarious taunt we'd used on oldies as kids, without fully comprehending its offensiveness:

In je broek schijten!
Ja, hij zal niemand meer pijn doen.

Kids can be cruel even when ignorant. We had a lot of 1st and 2nd generation immigrants around. Often our own people!

 

[His Dudeness]

poison the rest of the community.....

They will survive.

 

[hollydolly]

They will survive.

I have a Firefighter who lives next door... If I burnt as much as a plastic food container there would be hell to pay...

 

[jet]

sharp screw driver hammered through,shatters the ceramic disc

 

[His Dudeness]

I burn things all the time. Living in Rural America is a much different animal

 

[hollydolly]

I burn things all the time. Living in Rural America is a much different animal

here in the UK, I live in a semi rural area... but it means that I still have close neighbours as well as farmland...