destroying data

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, at 5:01pm, derek at derek.homeunix.org wrote:
> I was wondering if there was a good way to destroy the data on there
> before I send it back.

  Most of the data sanitation methods available depend on the drive being
operational, so you can write to it.

> I was thinking some sort of magnet, but I'm not sure how strong of one I
> need.

  Really, *really* strong.  As an experiment, I've blasted a plain old IDE
HDD with a commercial tape degausser, and as far as I could tell, it did not
effect it at all.

  I suspect, to achieve data sanitation with a non-functional drive, your
only options would also void the warranty of the drive.  So it is your call
as to what is more important: The cost of the drive, or data security.  I
imagine it depends greatly on what is on the drive.  :-)

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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