Disposing of old Hard Drives

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Rubix
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PostDisposing of old Hard Drives
by Rubix » Sat Oct 03, 2020 4:27 pm

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?

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Errkal
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Errkal » Sat Oct 03, 2020 4:29 pm

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/

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rinks
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by rinks » Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:55 pm

I hid mine under the floorboards.

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Preezy
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Preezy » Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:57 pm

Remember to delete all the grot.

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Jenuall
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Jenuall » Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:17 pm

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

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Ironhide
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Ironhide » Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:26 pm

rinks wrote:I hid mine under the floorboards.


And now their ghostly whirring is slowly driving you insane.

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Prototype
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Prototype » Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:32 pm

I recommend a... oh.

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kerr9000
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by kerr9000 » Sat Oct 03, 2020 7:53 pm

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.

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Sprouty
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Sprouty » Sat Oct 03, 2020 8:56 pm

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.

The silly neighbourhood vegetable.
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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Victor Mildew » Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:13 pm

Just chuck them in the river

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kerr9000
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by kerr9000 » Sun Oct 04, 2020 7:17 am

Nuke it from orbit it's the only way to be sure

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Rubix
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Rubix » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:34 pm

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 :shifty:

Do not pre order games from Amazon!
PLAY | Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [59h]
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Robbo-92
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Robbo-92 » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:41 pm

Smash it to pieces with a hammer (in a couple of bags) if you definitely don’t want it anymore.

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Peter Crisp
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Peter Crisp » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:42 pm

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.

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by OrangeRKN » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:47 pm

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 :P )

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Peter Crisp
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Peter Crisp » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:55 pm

I assume large companies like Google have recycling facilities?

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Sprouty
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PostRe: Disposing of old Hard Drives
by Sprouty » Mon Oct 05, 2020 5:37 pm

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 :shifty:


You're welcome! I also approve of the black hole suggestion if you are struggling to pick up a deguasser.

The silly neighbourhood vegetable.

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