Destroy Old Hard Drives with a Drill?

[chiefjim]

I normally put them in the oven at gas mark 9 and then refurbish them with a large hammer.

Simple measures can be very effective. In my case a common charcoal grill. Drive placed on the hot coals will destroy the electronics and warp the platters rendering them useless.

[Moonstone Man]

... Seagate ... it died a horrible death.

Tautology.

[GS3]

In this country, give her a free computer with free system and she goes and uses a free internet connection. All our libraries have free internet. Some supermarkets also have free internet. Coffee bar? Sit outside and get it free. I know of at least one village with free internet.

Well, yes, those solutions exist in pretty much any first world country but there is a huge difference between having Internet access at home and having to go somewhere to get it. It can get you by but it is not even remotely comparable.

[DAMIEN1307]

The woman he employs to help in his home is a single mother who lives close to the edge of poverty

but he said we should forget the idea because she cannot afford to pay for an internet connection.

Well i guess he would know if she is "on the edge of poverty" and cannot afford an internet connection, since he is the employer and knows exactly how much, or how little, he pays this single mother that helps out in his home...DAMIEN

[Kendoori]

Wow, this thread has gone way off into multiple unintended directions. I just want an easy way to destroy the drives.

[DAMIEN1307]

I just want an easy way to destroy the drives.

Yeah...I think we are all a little sorry about going off topic a little here...unfortunately, its human nature...ol.

However, you do have a lot of suggestions on how to destroy your HDDs as already submitted...DAMIEN

[Samarian Sunset]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but to the OP: If you smash or drill your old hardrives, wear eye protection.

[AZgl1800]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but to the OP: If you smash or drill your old hardrives, wear eye protection.

I like to set them up vertically at 100 yards, and drill thru them with a .223 65 grain bullet.

[HaveaMint]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but to the OP: If you smash or drill your old hardrives, wear eye protection.

I like to set them up vertically at 100 yards, and drill thru them with a .223 65 grain bullet.

And wear ear protection Data guard by Smith and Wesson.

[all41]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but to the OP: If you smash or drill your old hardrives, wear eye protection.

I like to set them up vertically at 100 yards, and drill thru them with a .223 65 grain bullet.

great
Make a video of that please. Ever wonder how many drives lined up domino style could be penetrated with one shot?
Maybe you could set a guiness record

[all41]

I normally put them in the oven at gas mark 9 and then refurbish them with a large hammer.

Simple measures can be very effective. In my case a common charcoal grill. Drive placed on the hot coals will destroy the electronics and warp the platters rendering them useless.

This lends a new meaning to the term 'burning data on a disc'

[lsemmens]

Load windows on them.......then, they deserve what they get! LOL

Seriously, drill a hole is as good as any other way of destroying the data. I'd probably just hit it with a lump hammer or a sledge hammer. For that fact if you aren't concerned about CIA or (even) the local copper, a pair of side cutters on the connectors will be adequate.

[GS3]

Wow, this thread has gone way off into multiple unintended directions. I just want an easy way to destroy the drives.

When you say "I just want an easy way to destroy the drives" I interpret that in the context of "I just want an easy way to destroy the drives which is both legal and socially responsible" because I interpret those to go without saying.

Most, if not all, developed countries have laws mandating the recycling of electronic products. This legislation has been enacted because we do not want electronics in the landfills, where they pollute the soil and the water, or in the incinerators where they pollute the air. Regardless of whether it may be illegal at times it is always irresponsible to dump electronics with the general waste and there is no need anyway because your data can be destroyed just as well while disposing of the physical drives responsibly.

You can securely erase your data without physically destroying the drive. If you want to physically destroy the drives then the responsible thing to do is to disassemble them and recycle the electronics. If you want to do it yourself you can enjoy extracting the magnets If you do not feel like doing it yourself you can have someone else do it for you. Again, you can safely erase all data on the drives and a recycling center will recycle them for you.

And the best thing you can do is not destroy them at all but erase the data and give them away for reuse. Again, if you do not feel like doing it yourself you can find someone who will do it for you.

I do not want to make this sound like a lecture to the OP but intended to raise awareness with anyone who reads it. We need to be more environmentally and socially aware; all of us.

Some months ago I decided to get rid of a pile of old furniture and electronics and appliances I was paying to keep in storage. Normally I would have tried to donate them to Goodwill but with the pandemic raging they would not take anything so I had to take it to a recycling center where they charged a hefty fee to take electronics and appliances. And I paid the fees because the alternative which was dumping all the stuff down a ravine in the middle of the night did not occur to me. Perhaps I remembered about Alice's Restaurant.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...And the best thing you can do is not destroy them at all but erase the data and give them away for reuse...

Merely erasing a drive will not erase the data; it will remain on the platters where recovery programs can access it. To get rid of the data, it must be written over. There are programs that will do that for you (I used CCleaner in Win 7; I've never used HDDs in Linux so I don't know what programs you could use). One pass is all that is needed on today's HDDs; that will block your data from all but a few Government alphabet agencies (a couple more passes will thwart even them).

[GS3]

...And the best thing you can do is not destroy them at all but erase the data and give them away for reuse...

Merely erasing a drive will not erase the data; it will remain on the platters where recovery programs can access it.

That is why I said "erase the data". Furthermore:

... you can just format them and, if you still want more, then overwrite them with a "wipe" program or just fill them up with big files.

With Windows I use PGP-Wipe but, again, just filling up the drive with some old, boring movies is plenty enough precaution.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...And the best thing you can do is not destroy them at all but erase the data and give them away for reuse...

Merely erasing a drive will not erase the data; it will remain on the platters where recovery programs can access it.

That is why I said "erase the data"...

We are on the same page but are expressing it differently. "Erasing" suggests to most people just deleting from the partition table, which tells the drive the sectors the data resides on are now available to be overwritten but doesn't actually remove that data; the data still needs to be overwritten or eliminated by exposing the platters to an incredibly powerful magnetic field, one that most, if not all, of us will never be able to access. "Wiping" refers to actually removing the data from the sectors, usually by overwriting it.

...

... you can just format them and, if you still want more, then overwrite them with a "wipe" program or just fill them up with big files.

With Windows I use PGP-Wipe but, again, just filling up the drive with some old, boring movies is plenty enough precaution.

Simple formatting alone will not remove the data from the drive; the data will still reside on the platters and can be recovered using a recovery program. Again, "wiping" is needed which almost always means overwriting using a wiping program, such as the one you suggested (or the CCleaner I suggested; there are others) or by just filling up the drive with a bunch of files of no importance will do the job.

The reason I reformat an HDD after wiping is to tell the partition table the sectors with the ones or zeroes that remain after wiping are now available for use so the S.M.A.R.T. attributes aren't confused by their presence (without reformatting, the drive will appear to be full after wiping unless the wiping program reallocates the sectors; not all do).

[Samarian Sunset]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but to the OP: If you smash or drill your old hardrives, wear eye protection.

I like to set them up vertically at 100 yards, and drill thru them with a .223 65 grain bullet.

Then you need to wear ear protection

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but to the OP: If you smash or drill your old hardrives, wear eye protection.

I like to set them up vertically at 100 yards, and drill thru them with a .223 65 grain bullet.

Then you need to wear ear and eye protection

FTFY

[old_noob]

I agree with repurposing old hard drives. They are great for backup or to give to someone who can use them. In Linux, you can wipe them with Bleachbit (sometimes even when you don't want it to ).

If you want to destroy a drive without working too hard, walk down to the nearest railroad and put it on the track when you hear a train coming... or maybe not - Homeland Security might shoot you nowadays.

[all41]

I have a bulk tape eraser which does wonders on the platters I have removed from
doa drives. After which they get strung up in groups of three to hang in the garden and deter
our fine feathered flock of friends.
Works--
The reflections can be seen for a couple miles in the right sun.
I also salvage the rare earth magnets. Several of these on a leaf rake finds
nails, lost screws, nuts, etc. We just had a new roof installed and the crew went around the house with a rolling
magnet sweeper.
My leaf rake magnets found 37 more. I do not want lawnmower flats!!