Destroying Hard Drives

[Alan Jeffs]

I have several hard drives to destroy/completely erase. They are already
removed from the computer cases. Dismantling them one by one and sanding
the disks is messy and time consuming. Extreme heat comes to mind as an
approach. Anyone with any experience putting them on the barbeque set to
highest? If so, how long does it take? And are there any noxious fumes
expelled?

 

[John McGaw]

I have several hard drives to destroy/completely erase. They are already
removed from the computer cases. Dismantling them one by one and sanding
the disks is messy and time consuming. Extreme heat comes to mind as an
approach. Anyone with any experience putting them on the barbeque set to
highest? If so, how long does it take? And are there any noxious fumes
expelled?

Most recent hard drives have glass platters. Simply opening the case and
whacking the platter(s) with a hammer is an effective data destruction
technique. The older sort had aluminum platters and these are quite
easily mangled enough that nobody will ever get data from them. I
wouldn't bother trying to barbecue a drive -- save your cooking for a
nice marinated salmon steak.

 

[Joe Morris]

I have several hard drives to destroy/completely erase. They are already
removed from the computer cases. Dismantling them one by one and sanding
the disks is messy and time consuming. Extreme heat comes to mind as an
approach. Anyone with any experience putting them on the barbeque set to
highest? If so, how long does it take? And are there any noxious fumes
expelled?

Are you sure that you've correctly identified the required level of
protection against data recovery? Certain types of classified data
require physical media destruction, but if that were the case here the
organization would have been required to have the destruction process
spelled out in detail long ago.

What type of attacker do you believe that you need to thwart? If it's
someone with NSA-level resources available to recover data, and the
attacker might have a reason to enlist NSA-level support, total
physical destruction is appropriate. OTOH, if that's not the case
then it might be sufficient to disassemble the platter stack (thus
getting the platters out of alignment with each other) and inflicting
a deep radial score on each recording surface.

The key idea is to make the cost of recovering the data higher than
the value of the data.

You could take the platters to your local shooting range and use them
for target practice. (There *are* facilities in a few places that will
supply a machine gun; you bring any (legal) target material and have
at it. At least for a while a popular target was used PCs.)

Joe Morris

 

[willard.myron]

Subject: Destroying Hard Drives
From: "Alan Jeffs" <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 15:43:19 -0400
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I have several hard drives to destroy/completely erase. They are already
removed from the computer cases. Dismantling them one by one and sanding
the disks is messy and time consuming. Extreme heat comes to mind as an
approach. Anyone with any experience putting them on the barbeque set to
highest? If so, how long does it take? And are there any noxious fumes
expelled?

No need for fire, sanding or heat for that matter. Just take the drives and
place them on a concrete floor. Then get a heavy hammer, a 2 pound ball pein
hammer is ideal for this job, and then proceed to beat the hell out of the
drives!. A couple of good blows with the ball end should be more than enough
to break a glass platter, and when you pick the drive up again you will hear
the broken glass rattling around inside.

 

[kony]

I have several hard drives to destroy/completely erase. They are already
removed from the computer cases. Dismantling them one by one and sanding
the disks is messy and time consuming. Extreme heat comes to mind as an
approach. Anyone with any experience putting them on the barbeque set to
highest? If so, how long does it take? And are there any noxious fumes
expelled?

Take a large hammer and give each a very hard wack through
the top of the casing with the claw end.

This is of course, after you have put the drives back into
systems, and used one of the myriad drive erasers that does
mutli-pass random data writes to the entire surface, which
makes the whole process of completely destroying the drive
later, pointless... but hey, you asked.

Before you believe some random urban myth about it being
possible to recover data after multi-pass random writes,
find even one example of it ever having happened. There is
no logical reason why people destroy discs... it's just
paranoia or ignorance of how to properly erase them.

 

[Starz_Kid]

I have several hard drives to destroy/completely erase. They are already
removed from the computer cases. Dismantling them one by one and sanding
the disks is messy and time consuming. Extreme heat comes to mind as an
approach. Anyone with any experience putting them on the barbeque set to
highest? If so, how long does it take? And are there any noxious fumes
expelled?

=----

Hello Alan, How about trying a 10 or 20 pound Sledge Hammer . . . . or
maybe a shotgun with several Deer Slugs ? ? ? ? ?

Just a violent thought....!

Starz_Kid...

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Before you believe some random urban myth about it being
possible to recover data after multi-pass random writes,
find even one example of it ever having happened.

You're leaving out "national technical means".
I've read (it's even on the web) that there are ways
to analyze the low levels of residual magnetization
left even after several over-writes, and that there are
ways to read the magnetic slop-over between tracks
that get left when a drive arm has become worn.
When national security is at stake, the boys with the
technical means that are beyond "the state of the art"
take over.

Of course, that is only to say that one need merely to
make data retrieval more expensive than it's worth in
one's effort to destroy it.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Cyde Weys]

You're leaving out "national technical means".
I've read (it's even on the web) that there are ways
to analyze the low levels of residual magnetization
left even after several over-writes, and that there are
ways to read the magnetic slop-over between tracks
that get left when a drive arm has become worn.

You need to reread the parent post. Everyone has heard of these random
rumors that some sort of residual magnetization is left over after
multiple random rewrites, or whatever other random technobabble you
want to throw at us. But despite all of this talk, it's never been
shown to even be possible, let alone done. Hence kony's challenge:
"find even one example of it ever having happened". You can't!

 

[w_tom]

If this recovering of lost data were true, then a single
erasure of Richard Nixon's Watergate tape easily and long
since would have been recovered. That also because a single
bit error does not destroy the recorded analog signal.

There exists this very remote possibility that some data
might be recovered. And that also assumes one knows which
disk to spend $millions on trying to recover that data.

Use the sledge hammer. Deposit in some third party
dumpster. If they can find and recover that data, then they
deserved it.

 

[wrench]

I can tell you exactly what the data was on ANY hard disk platter that has been
broken, burned, shattered, hammered, shot, erased in ANY manner - even melted
drives disks.

It's rather simple.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

If this recovering of lost data were true, then a single
erasure of Richard Nixon's Watergate tape easily and long
since would have been recovered. That also because a single
bit error does not destroy the recorded analog signal.

Nixon's tapes weren't digital.

There exists this very remote possibility that some data
might be recovered. And that also assumes one knows
which disk to spend $millions on trying to recover that data.

Once the equipment and procedures have been developed,
the actual data extraction would be routine.

*TimDaniels**

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Everyone has heard of these random
rumors that some sort of residual magnetization
is left over after multiple random rewrites, or
whatever other random technobabble you
want to throw at us. But despite all of this talk,
it's never been shown to even be possible,
let alone done. Hence kony's challenge:
"find even one example of it ever having happened".
You can't!

Let's say... I won't.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Jamie]

may i suggest a fishing trip then dropping your drives on the bottom of the
ocean lol

 

[chad]

Hi Alan,

Simply heating or smashing the drives just won't help. Secret agencies
like the NSA and CBS are capable of rejoining the fragmented molecules
of your drive even if you vaporize them. Global positioning
technologies can find the scattered fragments even if you spread the
drive pieces across the planet.

The only sure way of destroying your drives is to drop them into a
black hole. This is normally very difficult but fortunately I have one
in my garage and would be more than happy to help you out. Just
re-format the drives, pack them in bubble-wrap and mail them to me.
I'll take it from there.

BTW, you might want to backup your data first in case you change your
mind later. You wouldn't believe how many international spies and
terrorist organizations destroy their hard drives in a moment of panic
(when the CIA comes knocking on their door) -- only to come running to
me later with a sob story and a box full of broken platters. Truly a
pathetic lack of foresight!

Regards,

Chad
http://free-backup.info

 

[wrench]

I can tell you exactly what the data was on ANY hard disk platter that has been
broken, burned, shattered, hammered, shot, erased in ANY manner - even melted
drives disks.

It's rather simple.

 

[Steven.Gaskell]

Yeah and I'm King Kong

 

[Grinder]

I have several hard drives to destroy/completely erase. They are already
removed from the computer cases. Dismantling them one by one and sanding
the disks is messy and time consuming. Extreme heat comes to mind as an
approach. Anyone with any experience putting them on the barbeque set to
highest? If so, how long does it take? And are there any noxious fumes
expelled?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_synthesize_thermite

 

[kony]

You're leaving out "national technical means".

No I"m not. I mean, using the best technology mankind has
at it's disposal, sparing NO expense and working on it until
the end of time.

I've read (it's even on the web) that there are ways
to analyze the low levels of residual magnetization
left even after several over-writes,

Yes, and it can "maybe" result in a slightly higher success
than random chance. Taken over billions of bytes, that's
not even remotely close to being able to reconstruct data.

and that there are
ways to read the magnetic slop-over between tracks
that get left when a drive arm has become worn.

Theory about a phenomenon is not same thing as actually
being able to use it fruitfully.

When national security is at stake, the boys with the
technical means that are beyond "the state of the art"
take over.

Vague nonsense.

Of course, that is only to say that one need merely to
make data retrieval more expensive than it's worth in
one's effort to destroy it.

Nope, it's just paranoia.

There are established data-write techniques that are proven
to be unrecoverable, not as a matter of "how easy or
expensive", but rather, UNRECOVERABLE.

 

[wrench]

C'mon, ya don't believe me? Here's proof:

In no particular order the data is - ones and zeroes.

There - I told ya so.

 

[kony]

Once the equipment and procedures have been developed,
the actual data extraction would be routine.

Random theory.
There is no reason to believe it will ever be possible to
recover it.

Physical destruction makes sense in a different situation-
when the drive has failed (to any extent), thus the
multipass random overwrites cannot be done.