I have ~10 HDDs that I’d like to dispose of. For a while, I tended to buy unwarrantied used disks for my NAS, so these have all failed in some form or another over the years. I can’t just toss them, because they have my (unencrypted) data on them, but I can’t wipe them either since they don’t mount anymore. I want a simple and reliable way to render the contents unrecoverable. A nation state is not part of my threat model, but any kind of data reconstruction that could be bought for money is.
I’ve tried:
- Smashing with tools (largely ineffective)
- Punching holes with a drill press (how many holes are needed to ruin the disk? Also I’ve broken/dulled a few bits doing this)
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Fire
Taking the top plate off and smashing the platters directly is extremely effective if a little time consuming.
They shatter like glass.
Open them up with a screwdriver and then either smash the disks inside or continue dissassembling it for fun before destroying the disks.
Open the disks, take the platters out, you can smash them. Or, if you’ve been naughty, you can borrow a belt sander and sand them down to naught.
Microwave. Strong magnets. Drills. Scrapyard shredders. Volcanoes.
You need a $50 neodymium magnet and direct access to the platters
You need bigger tools. An 8+ pound sledge hammer. Just be sure the smashing happens on concrete or any hard flat surface. Hit the area where the platters would be. Should only take 1 - 3 hits a piece. Once you hear sand inside you’re done.
My 30lb sledge delete drives in one hit usually. Turns the platters back into dust lol.
