Disposing of a hard drive.

On 16/06/2018 00:23:55, Bill Ward wrote:
On 15/06/2018 19:40, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 06/15/2018 1:22 PM, Bill Ward wrote:
On 15/06/2018 19:02, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 06/15/2018 12:28 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Bill Ward" wrote

Most hard drives seem quite indestructible. What is the best
method of
| disposal ? I do live on the coast with some 500ft high cliffs nearby.
| Bill.

** Open it up. You'll find that the actual disks are
very brittle and shatter into *lots* of pieces.
You could probably also achieve that by just
bending it a bit in a vice.

PS - Watch out for tiny shards. They can be
very sharp. It's best to contain the destruction.



I take them apart to salvage the very powerful magnets They come in handy
and they are super strong.

Rene

I've never managed to take one apart. Is there a Youtube video for it?
Bill.


Mostly all you need is a set of small Torx screw drivers, Remove cover than
all visible screws.

Rene

I've got that far in the past but never felt that I had damaged them enough
to stop clever people getting data from them from stories I've read.
Bill.

Just take the platters out, score them with a screwdriver, sand paper
them, put them in a bag and hammer them into bits, bury the bits all
over the garden. By the time someone has found all the bits,
re-assembled them and tried to get the info you will be long gone and
past worrying. :-)

--
mick

On 06/15/2018 04:17 PM, Bill Ward wrote:
On 15/06/2018 22:40, T wrote:
On 06/15/2018 09:53 AM, Jonathan N. Little wrote:
Bill Ward wrote:
Most hard drives seem quite indestructible. What is the best method
of disposal ? I do live on the coast with some 500ft high cliffs
nearby.
Bill.

Hammer works.

1+

These things are so precise that any warping of the media
will render them useless.

Give it a couple of good whacks.Â* Wear safety glasses.


CD's and DVD's I just put in the micro wave for a few seconds.
The financial director where I used to work had a novel way of
destroying a floppy disk. He brought a crumpled one to me and asked if I
could do anything with it. He had left it on the window sill in full
sunlight and gone on holiday.
Bill.

Chuckle!

Ant wrote:
Bill Ward wrote:
Most hard drives seem quite indestructible. What is the best method of
disposal ? I do live on the coast with some 500ft high cliffs nearby.
Bill.

Throw it into a volcano. :P

We have a local (NJ) recycling company that has a shredder which will shred your drive into small
pieces so it is completely unusable. They charge $5 per drive and you can stand there a watch them
do it.

On 6/15/2018 7:11 PM, mick wrote:
On 16/06/2018 00:23:55, Bill Ward wrote:
On 15/06/2018 19:40, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 06/15/2018 1:22 PM, Bill Ward wrote:
On 15/06/2018 19:02, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 06/15/2018 12:28 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Bill Ward" wrote

Most hard drives seem quite indestructible. What is the best
method of
| disposal ? I do live on the coast with some 500ft high cliffs
nearby.
| Bill.

** Open it up. You'll find that the actual disks are
very brittle and shatter into *lots* of pieces.
You could probably also achieve that by just
bending it a bit in a vice.

PS - Watch out for tiny shards. They can be
very sharp. It's best to contain the destruction.



I take them apart to salvage the very powerful magnets They come in
handy and they are super strong.

Rene

I've never managed to take one apart. Is there a Youtube video for
it? Bill.


Mostly all you need is a set of small Torx screw drivers, Remove
cover than all visible screws.

Rene

I've got that far in the past but never felt that I had damaged them
enough to stop clever people getting data from them from stories I've
read.
Bill.

Just take the platters out, score them with a screwdriver, sand paper
them, put them in a bag and hammer them into bits, bury the bits all
over the garden.* By the time someone has found all the bits,
re-assembled them and tried to get the info you will be long gone and
past worrying. :-)

All the screws are not visible, some are hidden under labels and
stickers. Takes about ten minutes to completely dissemble, worth it for
the magnets.

On 06/15/2018 12:47 PM, Bill Ward wrote:
On 15/06/2018 18:10, ray carter wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jun 2018 17:47:31 +0100, Bill Ward wrote:

Most hard drives seem quite indestructible. What is the best method of
disposal ? I do live on the coast with some 500ft high cliffs nearby.
Bill.

Being the inveterate 'tinkerer' that I am, I'd use a screwdriver.

I've tried that in the past but you don't really get into it.
Bill.

I've opened a few HDs. Most require a 6-point star driver.

BTW, the platters have been shiny metal, not brown like tape.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion."

On 06/15/2018 01:02 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:

[snip]

I take them apart to salvage the very powerful magnets They come in
handy and they are super strong.

Rene

Yes. Another source of strong magnets has been shake flashlights.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion."

On 06/15/2018 01:04 PM, Paul wrote:
Bill Ward wrote:
Most hard drives seem quite indestructible. What is the best method of
disposal ? I do live on the coast with some 500ft high cliffs nearby.
Bill.

If a platter is bent just a little bit, that's sufficient.

You can use a screwdriver to gain access to the platters.

Â*Â* Paul

Exposing the platters to dust may be enough. Consider the size of a dust
particle in relation to the magnetized spots.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion."

On 06/15/2018 01:22 PM, Bill Ward wrote:

[snip]

I've never managed to take one apart. Is there a Youtube video for it?
Bill.

I've never needed a video to remove a few screws, especially from
something that wasn't going to be reassembled afterward.

--

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion."

On 06/15/2018 06:17 PM, Bill Ward wrote:

[snip]

CD's and DVD's I just put in the micro wave for a few seconds.
The financial director where I used to work had a novel way of
destroying a floppy disk. He brought a crumpled one to me and asked if I
could do anything with it. He had left it on the window sill in full
sunlight and gone on holiday.
Bill.

I used to have an AOL CD where someone had cut a notch in one side and
put on a label (on the shiny side) that said "user protection notch".

On 06/15/2018 07:11 PM, mick wrote:

[snip]

Just take the platters out, score them with a screwdriver, sand paper
them, put them in a bag and hammer them into bits, bury the bits all
over the garden.

You might even put a few bits in other peoples' gardens.

By the time someone has found all the bits,
re-assembled them and tried to get the info you will be long gone and
past worrying. :-)

"long gone and past worrying". Was there poison gas in that hard drive? :-)

--
Jesus rose from the dead and the apostles came unto him saying "How's
Elvis?"

On 06/15/2018 11:42 PM, NotMe wrote:

[snip]

All the screws are not visible, some are hidden under labels and
stickers. Takes about ten minutes to completely dissemble, worth it for
the magnets.

Remove the visible screws. If the cover still doesn't come off, you
should be able to locate the problem. Easy, since it's OK to bend the
cover on a drive you're not going to put back together.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion."

"Mayayana" wrote:

That sounds like a good plan. Then only
the local police, their brothers in law, their
old war buddies, and the guys at the gym
will be able to break into your bank account
or read your love letters.

Along with dozens of teenagers in China and Russia who downloaded the
contents of the HD long before it failed. G

--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

Mark Lloyd wrote:

I've opened a few HDs. Most require a 6-point star driver.
BTW, the platters have been shiny metal, not brown like tape.

If you find one of the right vintage they look like shiny metal, but
turn out to be glass ...

Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 06/15/2018 01:22 PM, Bill Ward wrote:

[snip]

I've never managed to take one apart. Is there a Youtube video for it?
Bill.

I've never needed a video to remove a few screws, especially from
something that wasn't going to be reassembled afterward.


You'll need a video to get the Helium ones open.

And a can opener.

The lid is laser-welded to make it gas-tight.

Paul

Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 06/15/2018 01:04 PM, Paul wrote:
Bill Ward wrote:
Most hard drives seem quite indestructible. What is the best method
of disposal ? I do live on the coast with some 500ft high cliffs nearby.
Bill.

If a platter is bent just a little bit, that's sufficient.

You can use a screwdriver to gain access to the platters.

Paul

Exposing the platters to dust may be enough. Consider the size of a dust
particle in relation to the magnetized spots.


Bending the platter, solves two problems.

1) Usage of regular read methods. A bent platter would
cause head crashes.

2) Usage of an MFM. They need a degree of flatness
to the sample, and the X-Y head movement during
a single scan, isn't that large (it scans small squares).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_force_microscope

Paul