How to physically destroy a hard drive?

With all this NSA and Showden stuff we been hearing about, I thought this would be a great article. Hard drive are almost indestructible, how could I destroy all the data on the drive so that nobody in the future could ever recover it?

Lets leave out software erasers like writing all 0's. The drive has to be totally unrecoverable!

Cut off IDE pins and Power Pins, no one can connect the hard drive anymore.

gherna1 said:

Cut off IDE pins and Power Pins, no one can connect the hard drive anymore.

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Someone could easily find a matching drive and change out the logic boards and recover the data.

This could be a fun thread, how about taking a hammer to it on a cement side walk? Make sure every platter is bent and beat up!

Burn it in a fire...

Microwave it the drive, the sparks will peal off the metal plating from the platters.

JoeShmoe said:

Microwave it the drive, the sparks with peal off the metal plating from the platters.

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Take it apart first, then microwave the platters for 5 mins. It will be toast!

700_up said:

This could be fun, how about taking a hammer to it on a cement side walk? Make sure every platter is bent and bet up!

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Hard drive chassis are almost impossible to destroy with a hammer. Remove the platters and smash them or better yet, rub the platters with a large neodymium magnet, that will randomize all the magnetic poles on the disk, then smash it!

There are many ways to destroy a HDD:

1. Take a very very strong magnet to the drive platters.
2. Take a grinder to the surface of the drive platters, or
3. Take a wire brush drive platters.

Give it a salt water or vinegar or bleach bath! all the chemical with cause a ton of corrosion(rust) that is irreversible. I knocked my laptop in to my pool one, by the time I pulled it out it was fried. So removed all the components about a week later to see it any of it was salvageable. Nothing was but I took the hard drive apart to remove the magnet because I like to play with them, the outside of the drive was full of white powder the you see when aluminum rusts. The platters where not rusted, I guess because they are sealed. But if you give the Patters a bath in salt water or vinegar or bleach I guarantee they will NOT be unrecoverable!

Take it apart and drill little holes in each plate, then it mostly dust!

Smelt the drive in to ingots. Who is going to recover my personal data in ingot form?

How about throwing it in to a volcano? You data will be lost forever, unless some aliens can exact it magma?

Go to any salt water body of water and toss it in the water, get on a boat and do it somewhere deep!

Kevin0707 said:

Take it apart and drill little holes in each plate, then it mostly dust!

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I agree with Kevin, drilling holes in it is the cheapest and easiest way to destoy you personal date and the drive, permanently!

Use the platters for Skeet shooting, should be in hundreds of pieces by the time your done!

One word: Sawzall!

Put the drive in a vice and saw it in to several pieces. Then put it in to different garbage! Simple!

Take 80 grit sandpaper to the pattens, ruff them up real good, with very deep scratches, it will never be recoverable!

All of the above:
Large magnet, drill holes in it, grind it, saw it, sand it, then in salt water bath.

Add dynamite tot he list!

Sassifrass13 said:

Add dynamite tot he list!

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C4 would do a better job!