Hard Drive Destruction

A place to discuss pretty much anything related to storage, computers, data recovery or technology.
Post Reply
lcoughey
Site Admin
Posts: 966
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:23 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Hard Drive Destruction

Post by lcoughey »

What do you get when you mix a 2 tonne arbor press and a 2.5" hard drive? A lot of fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luS-kINIE4k
eendusa
Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:33 pm

Re: Hard Drive Destruction

Post by eendusa »

Unfortunately, only putting an arbor through a hard drive does not 100% remove data. That's just "scratching the surface" of hard drive sanitization. (See what I did there? :D ) Certified companies normally conduct the following steps for 100% data destruction:
1. Wiping: Using a software program to digitally erase the data.
2. Degaussing: Placing the hard drive on a huge magnet, which turns the hard drive into a "brick"
3. Shredding: Throwing the hard drive into a giant grinder that crumbles the brick into 1 centimeter sized pieces
4. Incinerating: Taking those pieces and melting it down.

Steps 3 & 4 are a little extreme, but hey, how bad do you want it to "disappear"?

Just make sure you are utilizing a NAID certified business. NAID is the standard for data destruction. You can even stick around to witness it and normally be provided a certificate of destruction.

Here is an example of one company that does it right: [Link removed by moderator]
lcoughey
Site Admin
Posts: 966
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:23 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Hard Drive Destruction

Post by lcoughey »

When crushing a drive with an Arbour press, it is important to make sure that the platters, themselves are destroyed in the process. Any data destruction process has its flaws, if not done correctly.
Post Reply