| Author |
Topic |
SabotNoob
Sabot Industries
|
Posted - 2010.04.26 16:51:00 - [ 1]
I have some old, formatted hard drives from past computers that I'd like to have shredded. The computers were sold but I always kept the drives. Has anyone used a good company in the U.S. for such purposes? I know there are some that have you mail in your drives and shred them for you and send you a video of the shredding. Any experience/feedback on any specific companies?
Thanks, |
Mr Funkadelic
x13
Raiden. |
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:07:00 - [ 2]
How about you just use a big hammer? |
Dan O'Connor
Cerberus Network
Dignitas. |
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:08:00 - [ 3]
 Originally by: Mr Funkadelic
How about you just use a big hammer?
The Banhammer to be precise, for hard drives. |
Last Wolf
Umbra Wing |
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:18:00 - [ 4]
|
Rawr Cristina
Caldari
Naqam |
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:21:00 - [ 5]
Not interested in doing a software data erasure so you still have a HD at the end of it? |
SabotNoob
Sabot Industries
|
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:23:00 - [ 6]
Originally by: Mr Funkadelic
How about you just use a big hammer?
I've thought of all the do-it-yourself ways but I have quite a few of them. Not really feasible. Just curious, could data be extracted off of a broken piece of the actual disk? I've heard that shredding turns them into very small pieces, or even into dust? |
Zions Child
Caldari
The Resident Haunting
|
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:32:00 - [ 7]
Edited by: Zions Child on 26/04/2010 17:33:08 Originally by: Last Wolf
Just use thermite!
I am soooo doing this. |
Blane Xero
Amarr
The Firestorm Cartel
|
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:36:00 - [ 8]
Originally by: SabotNoob
Originally by: Mr Funkadelic
How about you just use a big hammer?
I've thought of all the do-it-yourself ways but I have quite a few of them. Not really feasible.
Just curious, could data be extracted off of a broken piece of the actual disk?
I've heard that shredding turns them into very small pieces, or even into dust?
Big Hammer, Lots of nails, powerful magnet. These are the three tools you need to remove any possibility of anyone reconstructing your data from a Hard Drive. |
Culmen
Caldari
Culmenation
|
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:41:00 - [ 9]
|
Kazuo Ishiguro
House of Marbles
|
Posted - 2010.04.26 17:43:00 - [ 10]
Have you considered DBAN? Note: generally involves making a PC unusable, but can do lots of drives at once. |
Digital Solaris |
Posted - 2010.04.26 18:27:00 - [ 11]
Originally by: Kazuo Ishiguro
Have you considered DBAN? Note: generally involves making a PC unusable, but can do lots of drives at once.
Thanks. This gives me ideas.  |
Taua Roqa
Minmatar
Sebiestor Tribe
|
Posted - 2010.04.26 19:41:00 - [ 12]
|
illford baker
STK Scientific
IT Alliance |
Posted - 2010.04.26 19:54:00 - [ 13]
1.take the hard drive apart
2. use a sander on the gold disks
3. use a hammer on them
4. set it on fire (gas, lighter fluid, ect...)
5. bury the remains in a deep hole in your back yard
i can safely say no one will ever see whats on there. |
Kuar Z'thain
Amok.
Goonswarm Federation |
Posted - 2010.04.26 20:07:00 - [ 14]
|
armas
Gallente
Black Thorne Corporation |
Posted - 2010.04.26 21:29:00 - [ 15]
I take the disk platters out to use as coasters. Run a powerful magnet over them (like the ones you find in the hard drive).
|
Last Wolf
Umbra Wing |
Posted - 2010.04.26 22:00:00 - [ 16]
Microwave it? |
Trader20 |
Posted - 2010.04.26 23:27:00 - [ 17]
I personaly wouldnt trust someone else to delete my old info/hdds. I would get a wiper program, which is a program that writes "1"s on every bit of every byte on every sector of every plate on your hard drive. Deleted data is recoverable because the data is still there until it is overwritten. When you delete a file it only deletes the link to the file on your HDD Index. Writing a 1 over that data removes it completely. A 1 on an HDD is just a tiny microscopic magnet turned either | or -. So a HDD full of ones would be ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| forever. or just get some accelerants and burn it, have a fire extinguisher close by though  |
Brisco County
The Shadow Plague
Gentlemen's Agreement |
Posted - 2010.04.27 07:56:00 - [ 18]
|
dr doooo |
Posted - 2010.04.27 09:52:00 - [ 19]
Edited by: dr doooo on 27/04/2010 09:57:15It would seem to me that posting your drives to strangers is far more risky than a simple software scrubber (maybe followed by a few nails and a hammer, or maybe a bonfire if you are really paranoid, or your hiding proof of alien lizard overloads). I seem to remember reading that it can be possible to retrieve some data even after the platters have been physically broken into pieces, or there has been a single pass of a software eraser, but that it is hugely complicated and expensive, so only relevant at 'state secrets' sorts of levels. There is an obvious solution to that anyway - 2 passes of a software eraser. EDIT: Imagine some of the stuff the employees of these mail order companies see before they get around to shredding the discs  . As soon as you 'tell' someone not to look in the box etc  |
Whitehound
The Whitehound Corporation
Frontline Assembly Point |
Posted - 2010.04.27 09:54:00 - [ 20]
You may want to delete the disks first to go entirely sure:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/securedelete.shtml |
Caldari Citizen20090217 |
Posted - 2010.04.27 15:07:00 - [ 21]
|
Barakkus |
Posted - 2010.04.27 17:41:00 - [ 22]
This company: http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/ was able to recover 99% of the data off one of the hard drives from the Columbia when it burned up on re-entry, so thermite might not be so final  |
Zions Child
Caldari
The Resident Haunting
|
Posted - 2010.04.27 18:04:00 - [ 23]
|
Veritaal
Amarr
Red Federation
|
Posted - 2010.04.27 18:33:00 - [ 24]
Edited by: Veritaal on 27/04/2010 18:36:05
Destruction of a hard drive isn't hard at all. We are talking about a computer component that is so sensitive, a few lone grains of dust will ruin it.
Step 1 : Remove the platters from the casing.
Step 2 : Get a hammer. The bigger the better.
Step 3 : Pulverize the platters until you feel safe.
Step 4 : Wash the pulverized remains down the nearest storm drain.
My process is free, fun, and can be completed in less than 10 minutes. Less than 1 if you want to skip step 1 and just whack away at the HDD unit itself. There is absolutely, positively no way to retrieve data from a pile of dust and shards.
*EDIT*
Before anyone complains about step 4 being environmentally unfriendly, HDD platters are a form of ceramic. No more dangerous than throwing out a broken plate. |
Nikita Alterana
Kumiho's Smile
|
Posted - 2010.04.27 18:43:00 - [ 25]
has anyone wondered what the OP has on his hard drives? |
Praesentius |
Posted - 2010.04.27 18:45:00 - [ 26]
Edited by: Praesentius on 27/04/2010 18:45:49My friend, Mr. Google, recommends: Shreddy Shred ShredBut I used to work for the man... we used GSA approved shred companies. I don't know how much that would cost a regular joe. |
Barakkus |
Posted - 2010.04.27 18:58:00 - [ 27]
You could just go to the hardware store and get a bottle of industrial drain opener. It's mostly sulfuric acid, pour that on the platters. You just have to take some precautions not to inhale the fumes produced or get splashed :P |
scunner funk
Minmatar |
Posted - 2010.04.27 19:02:00 - [ 28]
What you need to make a hard drive unreadable is gonna depend on who's likely to try and read it.
Powerful magnets and overwriters that fill the disk with 1's are essentially the same thing and fine for most household PC's, no one will be able to read data from the disks using standard pc technology.
Forensic scanners can still read discs that have been magnetically sabotaged. The reason for this that no material deforms in a 100% elastic manner so each time the material moves from a 1 to a 0 it leaves a rim of plastic deformation that, under the right circumstances, can tell you the history of every single 1 and 0 that was ever on that disc.
Fortunately the process of forensically examining hard drives is expensive in terms of equipment and skills therefore way out of reach for any criminal without government backing. If however you are being pursued by the Italian mafia and really need to destroy the disc then you need to use heat, such as a blow torch. Only by melting or grinding to dust will you truly erase a hard drive (though it's overkill for most circumstances).
|
Zions Child
Caldari
The Resident Haunting
|
Posted - 2010.04.27 19:06:00 - [ 29]
Originally by: Barakkus
You could just go to the hardware store and get a bottle of industrial drain opener. It's mostly sulfuric acid, pour that on the platters. You just have to take some precautions not to inhale the fumes produced or get splashed :P
I'm not saying there aren't easier ways, like many people suggested, Sledges, your suggestion of acid, a blendtec blender. But thermite is FUN!!! YAY 2000 DEGREE CELSIUS MOLTEN SLAG! |
Veritaal
Amarr
Red Federation
|
Posted - 2010.04.27 19:13:00 - [ 30]
Originally by: Nikita Alterana
has anyone wondered what the OP has on his hard drives?
I always wonder what's on some peoples' HDDs. TBH, the only thing someone MIGHT be able to get off of my computer is my credit cards and personal info.... But even then I'll just do a factory restore and do a 7 pass 1s and 0s overwrite of the whole thing and say 'good enough.' I doubt your average identity thief is going to spend thousands of dollars on bleeding-edge data recovery techniques to get my social security number, when there are thousands of people who are basically giving theirs away by comparison. |
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