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Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 4:27 pm
by Rubix
After replacing some of my external HDD's with SSD's I have a few old HDD and Flash pens to dispose of. How does everyone get rid of theirs?
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 4:29 pm
by Errkal
You can destroy the disks inside with a drill then no one can get the data, then I think they probably have a thing at the tip, I’m not sure you are meant to just put them in the bin.
There are services that are free
https://www.pureplanetrecycling.co.uk/f ... struction/
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:55 pm
by rinks
I hid mine under the floorboards.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:57 pm
by Preezy
Remember to delete all the grot.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:17 pm
by Jenuall
Multiple passes of zero fill and random data writing should be good enough to clear them out, add in a physical step like damaging the platter if you really want to be safe. Then you can usually take them to a local recycling centre
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:26 pm
by Ironhide
rinks wrote:I hid mine under the floorboards.
And now their ghostly whirring is slowly driving you insane.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:32 pm
by Prototype
I recommend a... oh.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 7:53 pm
by kerr9000
The ones I wasn't going to use again , I formatted and then hit them as hard as I could with a hammer and tossed them in the bin.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 8:56 pm
by Sprouty
Disposing of a Hard Drive is one of those things you can't be too careful with. I'd recommend the following steps:
First of all reformat the drive (obviously!)
Degaussing should clear the contents. I recommend the Intimus 8000S Degausser.
Drill several holes throughout the drive - an electrical drill is best, but if you don't have a drill, bullets from any hand gun should have the desired effect.
If you have any corrosive acid, leave it swimming in there overnight. I tend to use hydrochloric acid, but sulfuric acid, nitric acid, chromic acid etc should be fine.
After this I would take a flamethrower to it. Something like the Sheen x300 Flame Gun should do the job.
This should have wiped the vast bulk of the data, but at this point I would recommend dropping the remains into the sea. Thankfully I live fairly close to the coast!
Edit: Obviously be careful, some of these steps can be dangerous, so buy disposable gloves and some goggles first.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:13 pm
by Victor Mildew
Just chuck them in the river
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 7:17 am
by kerr9000
Nuke it from orbit it's the only way to be sure
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:34 pm
by Rubix
SillySprout wrote:Disposing of a Hard Drive is one of those things you can't be too careful with. I'd recommend the following steps:
First of all reformat the drive (obviously!)
Degaussing should clear the contents. I recommend the Intimus 8000S Degausser.
Drill several holes throughout the drive - an electrical drill is best, but if you don't have a drill, bullets from any hand gun should have the desired effect.
If you have any corrosive acid, leave it swimming in there overnight. I tend to use hydrochloric acid, but sulfuric acid, nitric acid, chromic acid etc should be fine.
After this I would take a flamethrower to it. Something like the Sheen x300 Flame Gun should do the job.
This should have wiped the vast bulk of the data, but at this point I would recommend dropping the remains into the sea. Thankfully I live fairly close to the coast!
Edit: Obviously be careful, some of these steps can be dangerous, so buy disposable gloves and some goggles first.
Thanks
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:41 pm
by Robbo-92
Smash it to pieces with a hammer (in a couple of bags) if you definitely don’t want it anymore.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:42 pm
by Peter Crisp
Just build a home made rocket and fire it into the sun or if you want total security the nearest black hole is Sagittarius A (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A* ) so that's worth considering.
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:47 pm
by OrangeRKN
Use DBAN (
https://dban.org/) to wipe them then recycle them.
EDIT:
You can follow
this to create a DBAN USB from Windows. Make sure your computer boots from the USB (you might have to interrupt startup and change the BIOS boot order) then you can follow through the on-screen prompts, it's easy enough. The best erasure method depends on the hardware and it can take a long time so worth a quick search to see if there is any point using the Gutmann method or whatever. You're probably best off just going with dod short which I think is the recommended if you don't know better (i.e. if you're anything like me
)
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:55 pm
by Peter Crisp
I assume large companies like Google have recycling facilities?
Re: Disposing of old Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 5:37 pm
by Sprouty
Rubix wrote:SillySprout wrote:Disposing of a Hard Drive is one of those things you can't be too careful with. I'd recommend the following steps:
First of all reformat the drive (obviously!)
Degaussing should clear the contents. I recommend the Intimus 8000S Degausser.
Drill several holes throughout the drive - an electrical drill is best, but if you don't have a drill, bullets from any hand gun should have the desired effect.
If you have any corrosive acid, leave it swimming in there overnight. I tend to use hydrochloric acid, but sulfuric acid, nitric acid, chromic acid etc should be fine.
After this I would take a flamethrower to it. Something like the Sheen x300 Flame Gun should do the job.
This should have wiped the vast bulk of the data, but at this point I would recommend dropping the remains into the sea. Thankfully I live fairly close to the coast!
Edit: Obviously be careful, some of these steps can be dangerous, so buy disposable gloves and some goggles first.
Thanks
You're welcome! I also approve of the black hole suggestion if you are struggling to pick up a deguasser.