Well I have this old hard disk from my old pc and I'm not sure what to do with it. I want to throw it away but I rather have it destroyed. Any suggestions other than smashing it with a hammer? Anything creative?
Well, not sure about creativity, I tend to go for thoroughness.. My way is.. take a phillips head (+) screwdriver, place it directly on the halfway point on the radius of the platter, and then whack it once, very hard, with a sledgehammer. A well done hit will puncture the aluminum shell, and go through every single platter in one hit, shattering it into a billion little pieces. With almost no physically apparent harm to the drive, other than a puncture mark over the platters.
Depending on how big your tin hat is. You could used garat method plus Darik's Boot And Nuke in combination. Although depending on the hard drive size you could wait maybe a week. Before you use the screwdriver to puncture it. Just a thought.
I've got a few ideas. 1: Take a week off and go to Hawaii, then, climb up and toss it into Kīlauea, the world's most active volcano. 2: Take it to **** Cheney's house, attach it to the head of a human mannequin and run away like a deer. 3: Take it to the magnetic north pole. I'm not sure if this will have the same effects as a conventional magnet so bring one of those in case. 4: Bury it 50 feet away from Area 51. 5: Or, for something less risky/expensive, blow it up with TNT. EDIT: It's a NAME, Uber forums.
Don't have a gun. It resisted my bite attack. Must be too hard to bite. Im up for this one, I just don't have a sledgehammer but i guess I will figure something out. I had this idea too but it is too much to bother for many reasons. Honestly if I had a chance for one of those I would do it.
In fairness, most drives, I tend to nuke and then donate.. but if they're past a certain age (say, my old ones that still use a standard IDE interface?).. they get the screwdriver treatment. Not worth my time to mess with.
Heat it at 200°C for an hour (only the platters if odor is a problem). It's more than enough. Superparamagnetic limit never disappoints. For future HAMR hard disk, you might want to use a welding torch.
Put it in a corner and wait. It's the ultimate solution I've used so far. I wonder how much dust is needed to break it.
If you have a microwave you also wish to kill....... Then you can make a viral youtube video from it.
I smashed my mouse with a tombmachin once. maybe you should try that. it`s fun, 100% guaranteed and 100% guaranteed destroyed. The bigger the machin the better!
Hide it in your car, go do street races and burnouts. If your lucky and depending on local laws, they'll crush your car (and the hard drive) into a little cube.
that sounds fun. considering my neighborhood this would be pretty funny, but I only have microwave that I don't wish to kill... what is tombmachin?
The standard method is drilling several holes into it. Especially over the chips since they may contain data. If you can find a local electronic recycling center near you, call them and ask if they can drill the holes for you, then they can just keep and recycle the materials.
Magnets, disassemble it, more magnets, then any hard object with a handle to smash the disks will do just fine. Just remember to keep a vacuum on hand. Also, the disks make fun frisbees for a while. Oh, and if you save the motor, you can launch mouseballs (Or other ball bearings) across your house. (They can leave dents! )
