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Looking for suggestions of disposing of a few old computers. I’m worried about personal files on the hard drive. In my previous business we always paid a company to deal with the old drives. There’s nothing major (or incriminating) 👀 on the computers, but a good 10 years of personal letters, photos , documents, letters accounts etc.
What do you do?
Enyaq EV
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To remove any trace of evidence, remove the hard drives from computers, unscrew the covers and you will then be able to remove the platter/s (disks), depending on how many there in each drive. Pysically destroy the platters, which is easy to do, by deeply scoring them all over on both sides.
Alternatively, if you have a strong neodymium magnet, you can just wipe the magnet over the platters and it will destroy the data or after removing the cover, drill through the platters in several places and take the lot to council tip.
In the days of smartphones, Windows etc.. Seems a bit excessive, but for peace of mind, you can just spin the HDDs up (start a defrag, for example) and shake them hard.
It will not destroy the data, but you’ll not recover it without sending it to a lab specialising in data recovery. Scoring the platters doesn’t destroy data either, it damages the platter. Everything that isn’t scored still stores recoverable data.
A simple magnet will not destroy the data either, that’s a movie myth and referring to HDDs from the 70s/80s. While it is true that magnetic fields can destroy data, a simple magnet is nowhere near strong enough. There certainly are neodymium magnets that reach the required strength, but they’re big money and not an average household item. For reference, it needs a pull strength of around 450lbs to be able to wipe modern platters. A degausser (a tool used by the industry to wipe data) can cost tens of thousands of pounds.
If you just want to make data inaccessible for someone picking the HDD up, just smash it on the floor a few times. If someone goes to the length to scavenge the platters and reinstall it in a new casing and head (which is an extremely complicated/delicate process, requiring tens of thousands of pounds worth of tools and a cleanroom), then no effort bar having it professionally disposed of will stop them to get at least partial data.
The safest way bar sending it to a disposal facility is simply to overwrite it. Plenty of file shredders out there (file shredders don’t delete your data, they overwrite it with gibberish files, making it unrecoverable from HDDs). Takes quite a while though (dependant on the algorithm, anywhere from an hour to multiple days).
Generally, i was never able to care. All my old SSDs and HDDs got formatted, then thrown away. Technically the data is still recoverable after just a format (because you’re not deleting the files as such, you’re just deleting the reference to it, basically), but it already requires so much effort that only professionals can reasonably do that. These kinda people usually don’t go dumpster-diving for HDDs.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.Laptop hard drives have glass disks. Hit it with a hammer. Thry are unrecoverable.
Likewise large metal platter ones, hit them with a hammer.
A hammer is the best drive solution.
A simple magnet will not destroy the data eithe
I can’t remember refering to just a “simple” magnet however, when I say strong neodymium magnets, I’m not refering to rattle magnets either.
It’s simple to open up a hard disk and remove the patters and destroy the platters by said method does work if done properly. Even a drremel wire brush attachment will do the same, but I guess it’s how far you want to go and who your protecting the data from and whether formatting and binning or formatting and just removing the platters is enough for security of mind. After all the average tip thief woudn’t beable to recover any data once formatted.
Cheers all, think I’ll take them out and smash them with a hammer. If anyone wants to get their hands on my data after that they’re welcome to it.
Enyaq EV
If they are older mechanical/optical HDD’s then a nice 1/4″ drill through the platters will usually do the job and shatter them.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
A simple magnet will not destroy the data eithe
I can’t remember refering to just a “simple” magnet however, when I say strong neodymium magnets, I’m not refering to rattle magnets either. It’s simple to open up a hard disk and remove the patters and destroy the platters by said method does work if done properly. Even a drremel wire brush attachment will do the same, but I guess it’s how far you want to go and who your protecting the data from and whether formatting and binning or formatting and just removing the platters is enough for security of mind. After all the average tip thief woudn’t beable to recover any data once formatted.
A neodymium magnet is simple. Strong ones, too. You need industrial strength to be able to even touch the data, we’re talking a magnet costing in excess of what the computer originally cost, and can take your finger/hand off if not careful.
There’s a reason why companies pay tens of thousands of pounds for a single tiny machine to erase HDDs, as opposed to just waving a magnet over the disc a little. It’s because a simple magnet doesn’t touch data nowadays.
Again, this isn’t the 80s anymore where putting an HDD next to a speaker was enough to scramble it.
Oh, and lastly, if “removing the platters” alone isn’t enough to protect your data against whoever is after it, then you have much bigger problems than whatever is on those platters. If someone is willing to spend tens of thousands of pounds to recover it (if that even covers a platter-reinstallation), or thousands to recover it from a simple format, then you’d probably be better off investing in a better alarm system to stifle all the burglars that inevitably would be coming for it BEFORE you dispose of it.
What a boomer discussion, genuinely.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.
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