Data Protection - Garage Style

[Steevo]

Every couple of years, it seems there is a computer that needs to be disposed of around my place. I always remove the hard drives before tossing them in the trash, so nobody can use my data for identity theft.

When I get around to destroying the hard drives, my favorite method is to use the hydraulic press.

I slip the drive between the press head and a pipe base I keep handy:

Apply a little pressure and the disk crushes:

Nope, no salvageable data here:

Safe for the trash can:

What creative ways have others found for killing old hard drives?

 

[Manganos]

Shoot em!



.50BMG

 

[Gary S]

Grab some tools and take them apart. There are great magnets inside that you can use in the shop, and you get them free as you destroy the drive.

 

[Jay Sco]

I've only had one computer to destroy. I didn't know what was what so I just took a sledgehammer to the whole thing.

 

[Steevo]

Shoot em!



.50BMG

Nice! Is that a 50-caliber?

 

[JimVonBaden]

The SOP for DHS is the use a BFH!

Jim

 

[Manganos]

Yeah .50BMG

 

[Thumper68]

None of the ways you are using are worth a damn, I could recover data from all of them.

The only way to make sure that the data is gone is to send them through a hammer mill and then melt them down.

 

[Chaznsc]

Compressing the data like that saves you disk space Steevo

 

[jay8s]

I crush then burn them. To crush them, sometimes I drive over them, put them in the vice, drill holes in them, BFH them. Once I hit it with a golf club I had laying around. I then let them burn in the fire pit. I do this to 1-2 old ones a year. I back everything up in triplicate every couple of weeks so I have lots of drives laying around. Good thing I get them free from work.

 

[Manganos]

In all honesty I leave a couple of rare earth magnets on a drive for a while. I always thought magnets were the best way but maybe I'm wrong?

None of the ways you are using are worth a damn, I could recover data from all of them.

The only way to make sure that the data is gone is to send them through a hammer mill and then melt them down.

 

[Thumper68]

In all honesty I leave a couple of rare earth magnets on a drive for a while. I always thought magnets were the best way but maybe I'm wrong?

There are 2 or more very strong magnets in the drive itself. What I do to dispose of the old ones (btw you can make some good extra cash this way too)

Take them apart, pull the disks and grab your rose bud and melt the damn things.

The cases are alum, there are many other parts you can take with you to the scrap yard to make a few bucks.

 

[brucer]

What creative ways have others found for killing old hard drives?

I have found a plasma cutter will completely F#ck up a hard drive in one swipe.

 

[JakeKohl]

None of the ways you are using are worth a damn, I could recover data from all of them.

The only way to make sure that the data is gone is to send them through a hammer mill and then melt them down.

That's a lot of trouble to go through to steal the identify of a middle class who-what like us.

 

[dbonne]

The press method has always worked good for me, except I like to call it data compression, or hydraulic encryption.

 

[JimVonBaden]

None of the ways you are using are worth a damn, I could recover data from all of them.

The only way to make sure that the data is gone is to send them through a hammer mill and then melt them down.

Although it may be possible to get some data from this:

It wouldn't be much and it wouldn't be cheap or fast. No run of the mill theif could do anything with it.

Jim

 

[Wangstang]

Only because I've seen in the movies...what does a microwave do to a drive? Obviously the microwave won't be worth much once it's done, but I am curious how a microwave would impact a drive.

Wes

 

[jhall0712]

None of the ways you are using are worth a damn, I could recover data from all of them.

The only way to make sure that the data is gone is to send them through a hammer mill and then melt them down.

How is it possible to recover anything from shattered or damaged HDD platters?

 

[PoorOwner]

I call BS that you would recover it, maybe if national security depends on it, one of my drives was making a clicking noise and I took it in, it costed $6k

Just format and put a bunch of Justin b__ber songs on them, should be enough turn off for anyone..

 

[Rust]

I pull the magnets. Very strong and very handy.

Pull the glass platters, smash and randomly disperse.
If they could pull enough data to profit from that; then they deserve it all.

 

[Steevo]

None of the ways you are using are worth a damn, I could recover data from all of them.

The only way to make sure that the data is gone is to send them through a hammer mill and then melt them down.

That sounds like a challenge.
I'll dump the shards of shattered glass disks into a vial and mail it to you, Thumper.

Then I'll pay you $100 for each fully recovered document you return to me.

Deal?

 

[stonesfan68]

I use a software program called Darik's Boot and Nuke to wipe the drive 7-times with random 1's and 0's and then drill holes in the drive.

 

[Keep]

I use a software program called Darik's Boot and Nuke to wipe the drive 7-times with random 1's and 0's and then drill holes in the drive.

Boot and Nuke is a good start. Do that right before you take it apart. If its a laptop drive the platters are most likely glass. Those you can take a hammer to and shatter them.

Larger desktop drives are usually aluminum, those you need to melt, take a belt sander to, or like me have a huge stack of them awaiting destruction in some spectacular way.

To the person saying they can pull data off the shatter platters, I call BS.

If you have a new SSD drive that goes south, take it apart, shatter the little memory chips on the card and you are all set.

 

[Cryptic1911]

No need to go all crazy destroying a drive 6 different ways. All you have to do is damage the platter, and it'll be unreadable

 

[jeffmoss26]

I take the drives apart and grind the platters. Save the magnets for the machinists!

 

[bczygan]

That'll buff right out...

 

[gatchel]

Compressing the data like that saves you disk space Steevo

 

[gc427]

None of the ways you are using are worth a damn, I could recover data from all of them.

The only way to make sure that the data is gone is to send them through a hammer mill and then melt them down.

The "ONLY WAY?"

What about giving one a bath in a bucket of muriatic acid after the crushing method Steevo showed us?

 

[ddowdy]

I dump mine in about 3k feet of saltwater. If someone does find it I'll be long gone.

 

[ph1gering]

that's what my .45 is for.. it will clear a hard drive fast

 

[KEH]

I've always thought that a computer should be designed is such a way that when you hit the delete button, data was DELETED beyond the ability of any forensic recovery, national security matters and other grossly antisocial matters included.

KEH

 

[Krash Kadillak]

I've always thought that a computer should be designed is such a way that when you hit the delete button, data was DELETED beyond the ability of any forensic recovery, national security matters and other grossly antisocial matters included.

KEH

Well, that's you and me........
Unfortunately, in the early years of computers, the gubament got involved.....

 

[pepi]

To make a drive safe, drives are shredded, putting a magnet on a drive does nothing. Drives have very powerful magnets internally, the purpose to get the head to park. There are two, top and bottom, that sandwich the head.

Open a drive sometime and check out the magnets you will find in there. The little drive smashed above will not have big magnets but they will be powerful. Put one of these magnets on your toolbox. You will have to work at it to remove it.

There are so many hard drives all over, one would have to be specifically targeted for the data. The chances of your drive being pick up and analyzed is minuscule. Seriously doubt most personal computer owners need worry about a discarded hard drive, lighting striking you would be a bigger worry.

Having your data sniffed or compromised is at a greater risk when online. Leaving a computer connected to the network 24 X 7 is an open door.

This is a shot of a 4" plater Seagate and the magnets .

When deleting the only thing the computer does is brake the path to that data. Once broken it can then be written over. The best you could hope for is to format the drive, better than formatting is to write or zero out the drive, and that would need to be done several times. However there's still is a chance if someone was really digging, the data could be recovered. So the shredding of a drive is the best practice.

 

[ph1gering]

I find this thread very amusing... Smash it with a hammer, drill some holes, burn it, shoot it, shred it.. No one would every attempt to recovery any of these hard drives to steal your pictures, internet history, **** habits or ssn..

Much easier to hack your PC or break into your house to steal your ipod, pc, cell phone ect.

 

[wrench409]

Intact platters can be read by forensic recovery systems. It takes time. But there are methods. Not in the consumer field.

Shattered platters are the only way, no matter how you shatter them.

A note, the circuit board has some value to drive recovery experts.

The aluminum housing has scrap aluminum value.

I have been lax. I still have drives in the closet from when they were first used in desktops. Yep, from 3 megabyte MFM 5.25 drives on up to 1 terabyte. No computer I've ever owned was sold with a hard drive that I used for storage. Why? Because I repair computers and WOW you'd be amazed what you see on some drives. On some business PC's I bought at surplus, there were complete payroll files and VERY current.

You can't be too careful. You can't trust what would happen to it after it's out of your possession.




<mytubeelement data="{"bundle":{"label_delimitor":":","percentage":"%","smart_buffer":"Smart Buffer","start_playing_when_buffered":"Start playing when buffered","sound":"Sound","desktop_notification":"Desktop Notification","continuation_on_next_line":"-","loop":"Loop","only_notify":"Only Notify","estimated_time":"Estimated Time","global_preferences":"Global Preferences","no_notification_supported_on_your_browser":"No notification style supported on your browser version","video_buffered":"Video Buffered","buffered":"Buffered","hyphen":"-","buffered_message":"The video has been buffered as requested and is ready to play.","not_supported":"Not Supported","on":"On","off":"Off","click_to_enable_for_this_site":"Click to enable for this site","desktop_notification_denied":"You have denied permission for desktop notification for this site","notification_status_delimitor":";","error":"Error","adblock_interferance_message":"Adblock (or similar extension) is known to interfere with SmartVideo. Please add this url to adblock whitelist.","calculating":"Calculating","waiting":"Waiting","will_start_buffering_when_initialized":"Will start buffering when initialized","will_start_playing_when_initialized":"Will start playing when initialized","completed":"Completed","buffering_stalled":"Buffering is stalled. Will stop.","stopped":"Stopped","hr":"Hr","min":"Min","sec":"Sec","any_moment":"Any Moment","popup_donate_to":"Donate to","extension_id":null},"prefs":{"desktopNotification":true,"soundNotification":true,"logLevel":0,"enable":true,"loop":false,"hidePopup":true,"autoPlay":false,"autoBuffer":false,"autoPlayOnBuffer":false,"autoPlayOnBufferPercentage":42,"autoPlayOnSmartBuffer":true,"quality":"default","fshd":false,"onlyNotification":false,"enableFullScreen":true,"saveBandwidth":false,"hideAnnotations":false,"turnOffPagedBuffering":false}}" event="preferencesUpdated" id="myTubeRelayElementToPage"></mytubeelement><mytubeelement data="{"loadBundle":true}" event="relayPrefs" id="myTubeRelayElementToTab"></mytubeelement>

 

[nicksnothereman]

Step 1: Format
Step 2: Hammer hammer hammer
Step 3: Barbeque
Step 4: Profit?

 

[TireTracks]

I take them apart for parts.
Magnets in one pile, very nice rare earth magnets.
Platters in another,
Circut board busted and put in the garbage
I have taken a few apart that had 1/2" thick aluminum for the body, Great heatsinks.

 

[Engineer61]

Drive manufacturers (both disk and chip) have moved to including built-in commands that will erase your data and there are utility programs available that use them - look for support of the "Sanitize" feature. They work better with SSD's than with hard drives, but if you repeatedly run them on hard drives you will eventually erase all of the data.
The problem is that the writing is never exactly perfectly centered on the track, it wobbles inboard and outboard randomly, so when you erase (over-write) the data when the original data zigged and the over-write zagged there is going to be an edge of original data that can be recovered. Repeated over-writes will eventually cause the over-written data to always have zigged and zagged when the original data write did, completely over-writing it. Most recommend at least 9 over-writes to be sure you have over-written all the data.

 

[raceman6135]

I repair computers and WOW you'd be amazed what you see on some drives. On some business PC's I bought at surplus, there were complete payroll files and VERY current.

You can't be too careful. You can't trust what would happen to it after it's out of your possession.

This is also true of many photocopiers. Their hard drives are often left in the machine when they are sold and the data can be quite valuable.

 

[Shopteacher]

I dont do anything on a PC that I would care if the NSA or anyone else found out about, if they want my surfing history that bad, they probably have it monitored by my ISP, they want my bank account numbers to see how much money I have, I am certain they can get that too, I check my usage and make certain what goes out, left because I wanted it to... why do I feel the need for an aluminum lined baseball hat after reading this thread???