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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