# How To Dispose of a Hard Drive??



## snaithbert2 (Aug 16, 2002)

Quick question:

I got a new computer and my old computer is way, way too old to donate to charity or anything like that. I'm taking the CPU itself to the recycling center, but I've removed the hard drive and I'm wondering what to do with it. It's only 20 gigs so I wouldn't bother putting it into another computer or selling it. At the same time I don't want to just toss it, because even though I deleted all the files on it, I'm always reading about how people find hard drives and can extract data from them no matter what, etc. Maybe I'm being paranoid but I worry about such things.

Can anyone recommend a good way to make sure no one can ever access the drive, or to clean it so well it's useless to anyone? Or is that even possible? I guess I can just stick in the closet forever, but if there's way to make sure the drive is totally clean- I'd love to do that and then just get rid of it.

Thanks in advance for any info anyone has, rest assured it's much appreciated.

Cheers,

Snaithbert


----------



## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

i think this program will do what you want
its on the ultimate boot CD
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
under hard disk wiping
[email protected] KillDisk Free Edition

dont know if its possible to still read - but its supposed to write 1&0's across the entire disk in a number of different patterns - I seem to remember it do quite a number of passess across the Harddrive and takes some time to complete


----------



## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

Do you own any power tools?


----------



## ceri sheeran (Aug 15, 2003)

Hi,

Drill a hole through the hard drive and all the patters.

Tkae it apart and trash the platters and heads. 

If you bend them, then they will be u- readable. It would be impossible to get them flat enough again.

Burnit in half with welding gear

Seriously just zero wipe it with any of the programs listed then wreck and trash it.

No possibility of recovery.

hth

Ceri


----------



## ceri sheeran (Aug 15, 2003)

Hi,

Drill a hole through the hard drive and all the patters.

Take it apart and trash the platters and heads. 

If you bend them, then they will be un-readable. It would be impossible to get them flat enough again.

Burn it in half with welding gear

Seriously though just zero wipe it with any of the programs listed then wreck and trash it.

Virtually no possibility of recovery.

hth

Ceri


----------



## Lithium (Aug 24, 2005)

I'd use that drive as an extra drive for linux or another OS.


----------



## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

Lithium said:


> I'd use that drive as an extra drive for linux or another OS.


I would to. Install it as a slave to your main hard drive and use it for storage.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Be a good drive to use as a backup for any important files.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If you want to insure nobody reads it, and it's no longer useful to you, just hit it with a splitting hammer, and pitch it in the trash.


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

20 megs or 20 gigs?

If the cpu was too old to donate, I'm guessing you meant to say 20 megs.

20 gigs is larger than any drive I currently run, so I most definitely would not toss it out.

I like the linux suggestions :up:

Why on earth would you want to toss out a 20 gig drive?


----------



## snaithbert2 (Aug 16, 2002)

Well on one hand the drive is pretty old. On another hand, I really can't install it into my new computer because there's too much stuff in there already. And on yet another hand (which makes 3) I'm a little wary of people extracting data off it after I donate it. I formatted it but word on the street is that these days- that's not quite enough.

In any case I like that "drill a hole through the hard drive and all the patters" suggestion. 

That may just be the way to go.

Thanks for the input all, 

Snaithbert


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Or there's third party software what will overwrite the data with 0's and 1's.

And yes it is not that hard to recover files after a drive was formatted. 

But unscrewing the cover and bending the scratching the platters is pretty easy and sometimes even satisfying ;-)


----------



## Rumpo-Stiltskin (May 9, 2006)

I've got a couple of old 18GB Maxtor drives that I store backup images on (using my much publicised USB to IDE adapter  ).
Nothing goes to waste around here......


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

Bob Cerelli said:


> And yes it is not that hard to recover files after a drive was formatted.
> 
> But unscrewing the cover and bending the scratching the platters is pretty easy and sometimes even satisfying ;-)


Still seems an awfull waste of a 20 gig drive.


Bob Cerelli said:


> Or there's third party software what will overwrite the data with 0's and 1's.


Data can, apparently, still be recovered from such a drive by the Department Of Defense. I'd like to know more about it than I do.

I don't really know how the data can still be recovered after you've written ones or zeroes over it 7 times(which is what the software you're looking for does), but I would like to find out.


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

Rumpo-Stiltskin said:


> ... using my much publicised USB to IDE adapter  ......


Holy Cuh-rap! That is Awesome!

I've never seen that before. Thanks!

Whoever invented that deserves to get rich off of it!


----------



## loserOlimbs (Jun 19, 2004)

Actually after enough writes the data can't be recovered even with an electron microscope. The original information gets distroted enough that it can't be recovered. Not sure of how many passes that takes... but they have a special name for it...


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Have several of those USB to IDE and USB to SATA adapters. Don't cost that much and are a lot easier to use if you have several hard drives and would rather not spend the money for a case for each one.


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

loserOlimbs said:


> Actually after enough writes the data can't be recovered even with an electron microscope. The original information gets distroted enough that it can't be recovered. Not sure of how many passes that takes... but they have a special name for it...


Austin, How much do you know about how the data stored on the medium affects that medium(the medium of a hard drive)?

I was under the impression that the data tends to affect the medium so that even after being overwritten 7 times, the DOD can still find out what was originally there.

I don't really know how it works though, and I would like to.


----------



## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

BanditFlyer said:


> even after being overwritten 7 times, the DOD can still find out what was originally there


If you think this it is likely that the DOD will want to get a hold of your hard drive and see what is on there after doing all that, it may be something you need to look into.


----------



## loserOlimbs (Jun 19, 2004)

As best as I can:

When the head write the 0 or 1 an impression is made by the magnetic force of the head.
If you delete the file in windows, usually its deleted just enough that you can write over it, same with a format.

When you use the scrubbers you write over these 1s and 0s enough so that most software can't recover it, because the impressions aren't there anymore (at least not as much so)

If you wipe the drive over and over using both 1s and 0s (Using one or the other won't have quite the effect?) you are able to eventually make the original data unreadable. The impression will be too distorted to make sense of.

Now as far as I know the last resort for recovering data is an electron microscope, but the time required to decode a HD with this makes it very expensive, and almost never done. As I said earlier though, there are supposed to be standards and a number of writes which even make this impossible.


In all honesty though, I doubt the DOD has released all their secrets, and if your serious about hiding info from them, you had better wipe the drive 7+ times, dismantle it, put the strongest magnet you can find to it, and then drill it!


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

Thanks guys!

I'll try to find some of the other TSG threads that have discussed this and post links to them here.

For some reason, people in those other threads seemed overly paranoid. Maybe they have something to hide from the DOD


----------



## loserOlimbs (Jun 19, 2004)

Good luck Bandit!


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/464552-wiping-software.html

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/467974-solved-harddrive-performance-formatting.html

http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/467282-more-secure-reformating-software.html

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/451305-wipe-hd-disable-xp-accounts.html - this was one of the ones that gave me a headache

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/453306-hard-file-erasing.html

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/447766-really-really-erasing-hard-drive.html

Hope those help - some of them make it look like even the DOD couldn't get stuff off of disks that you run this software on


----------



## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

if you format with 1 and 0's 
is the data that sensitive that people will try and recover ??????

i would stick in a USB case - which you cna buy for around £15-20 and use as an external harddrive


----------



## KingCody (Nov 3, 2005)

if the DOD agents are the only ones capable of such disorted data recovery, then you have nothing to worry about.

if you have something to hide from them, then you have other issues to worry about.

anyways, in all seriousness, do what has been suggested using household tools. a few good blows of a hammer would make it impossible for anybody but the DOD.

I personally would use it as a backup drive, you can buy an external USB case for under $10 from newegg


----------



## shieldbreaker27 (May 28, 2006)

Personally if you have a gun go out in a secluded place where no one can get hurt and open fire  a 12 gauge would serve well for this although almost any gun would work.Lets see some one try to get data from it with is looking like swiss cheese


----------



## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

Drive wiping software is fine, but can you honestly say that's more fun than a reciprocating saw
with a metal cutting blade, or a 5" grinder with a cutting disk?

Dang, I'm going to put up some links to my "drive destruction" videos one day...


----------



## loserOlimbs (Jun 19, 2004)

prunejuice said:


> Drive wiping software is fine, but can you honestly say that's more fun than a reciprocating saw
> with a metal cutting blade, or a 5" grinder with a cutting disk?
> 
> Dang, I'm going to put up some links to my "drive destruction" videos one day...


Depening on who you are hiding from your method may not be as effective.


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

Such a waste of storage.

I still have an old 500 Meg drive around here somewhere ...


----------



## HandleX (Mar 18, 2006)

dariks boot and nuke, then slam it physically, then trash it


----------



## loserOlimbs (Jun 19, 2004)

BanditFlyer said:


> Such a waste of storage.
> 
> I still have an old 500 Meg drive around here somewhere ...


I have some of those, and .97 GBs, and 1.87GBs and 5GB, 10GB, etc...

I also have a 80GB Maxtor that I took the logic board and casing off of, its mirror finish platters watch over my living room!


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

How about using it as a display model. Comes in handy when people ask what the inside of a hard disk looks like.


----------



## BanditFlyer (Oct 25, 2005)

loserOlimbs said:


> I have some of those, and .97 GBs, and 1.87GBs and 5GB, 10GB, etc...
> 
> I also have a 80GB Maxtor that I took the logic board and casing off of, its mirror finish platters watch over my living room!


That sucks! Your biggest drive is the only one that is a complete corpse.

Too bad it was that one that failed(I'm assuming) instead of one of the less usefull ones.


----------

