Destroying a hard drive

Jim Kuzdrall gnhlug at intrel.com
Wed Jul 11 13:24:58 EDT 2007


On Wednesday 11 July 2007 11:12, Jim Kuzdrall wrote:
>     What is the most efficient way to destroy the data on a hard
> drive before junking it?

    This was more of a survey question than one connected to one 
specific application, so a full definition of the criteria was not 
included.

    To focus more tightly, now that I have some idea of the 
alternatives, the specific problem is one 80GB IDE from my business 
computer that is gave ever increasing read errors.  Since I have to pay 
for the destruction, I would like it to be inexpensive.   And, it is 
summertime and tedious mechanical projects are less appealing than 
enjoying the weather.

    If someone else were paying, the shredding sounds good.  The problem 
with shredding may be due to the high density of magnetic recording.  
How much contiguous track is needed to record a 4KB file?

    Drilling is a good cheap alternative, and most likely effective 
enough for my present purposes.

    The problem with magnetic erasure is that I have no facility to 
confirm that it was actually successful.

    My wife suggested a magnetic erasure that might be more economical 
than the shredding truck.  She suggested renting the MRI machine at the 
hospital.  Even at a single layer, it would hold quite a few 3.5-inch 
drives, making the cost each low.  (Much of the MRI cost comes from 
creating the report and a doctor reading the results.)

    So far I like the idea of melting the drive best.  Perhaps someone 
could put a drive on the charcoal grill at the gnhlug BBQ.  Is it hot 
enough?  A picture of the platters (hard disk, not potato salad) after 
might be interesting. 

Jim Kuzdrall


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