Hardware recycling question: what do you do with harddrives?

[luxlunae]

In the last three years as a matter of attrition my SO and I have had to get rid of (generally best buy recycling) a number of computers but we didn't want to leave harddrives in them. How do you destroy your harddrive contents definitively before you toss them?

[MiRai]

Everything is piling up in a closet at the moment so that I can make a hefty dollar ebay'ing it in 50 years when it's considered antique hardware. ;)

[Chivalrous]

I always use the old parts to build new ones for friend/family or spares. I will buy extra parts when ordering upgrades to fulfill my needs then I just give them as gifts--I get joy from testing and tweaking these side jobs and I also get joy from giving them away to people that can use the upgrade. As for parts I don't use... Pretty much in a closet. I can never throw stuff away.

[moosejaw]

There is usually a hard drive shredder service in major towns/cities, if you want to destroy it. Else you can get software that does DoD wipes and run it. Pick up an external drive dock so you aren't messing with external cases or opening your pc just to check/wipe a drive.

[heyaz]

I DoD wipe them then smash them up as best as I can. The latter doesn't prevent data recovery but I figure after it's DoD wiped I'll make it as useless as possible. To physically destroy them they need to be shredded (they have machined that can do it to them like they're paper) or incinerate them.

I wouldn't sell or donate a hard drive that hasn't been wiped first. People can easily pull passwords or PII data off of them.

[tldr]

I use thermite.

[MiRai]

Looking back at this thread I actually failed to read the original question correctly, but I've used the DOS bootable version of KillDisk and it seems to have done the job well. I'm not sure if the free version comes with everything, though.

[Chivalrous]

I don't wipe them at all. But I live in Oklahoma! It's all trailer parks and wagon wheels... Lol ;)

but really, I don't. Guess I should! What about SSD? They any different?

[MiRai]

I don't wipe them at all. But I live in Oklahoma! It's all trailer parks and wagon wheels... Lol ;)

but really, I don't. Guess I should! What about SSD? They any different?
http://www.overclock.net/t/1227597/how-to-secure-erase-your-solid-state-drive-ssd-with-parted-magic

[F9thRet]

I don't wipe them at all. But I live in Oklahoma! It's all trailer parks and wagon wheels... Lol ;)

but really, I don't. Guess I should! What about SSD? They any different?

LOL, well, we do have the added advantage , of when we run out of Clay pigeons... :D

Stephen

[shadewalker]

I use a DoD software wipe then drill a bunch of holes through the platters / drives with a drill press( a hand drill would do the trick too). For good measure I make sure the connectors and any circuit boards are in a non functioning state before tossing them as well just in case.

At my work we used to just take them to a 30 ton press. That made awfully quick work of them

[Chivalrous]

Thanks guys! Yeah ill start wiping them. Better safe than sorry. Then maybe a little skeet shooting! ;)

[flux1]

I usually keep my old drives as the average number of them that has died to the number owned is far higher than any of my other hardware. Old ones I usually wipe with a program like Kill Disk or TrueCrypt with a random password to write random crap over the drive, then pack it away in the closet.

[luxlunae]

Thanks guys, I'll ask the people at best buy if they actually do hard drive shredding and if not... well the closet is probably as safe a place as any.

[tldr]

Best Buy is *not* a company whose employees I would trust to safeguard my data.

[moosejaw]

Companies like Iron Mountain that do secure file storage and secure document destruction will also have shredders that can do hard drives.

[shadewalker]

Best Buy is *not* a company whose employees I would trust to safeguard my data.

I agree 100%

[Ualaa]

I generally recycle them, as in... pass older systems on to relatives.
In general, my 3-5 year old gaming system is a lot stronger than whatever most non-gaming people happen to have.

[JohnGabriel]

I generally recycle them, as in... pass older systems on to relatives.
In general, my 3-5 year old gaming system is a lot stronger than whatever most non-gaming people happen to have.

Hopefully reinstalling Windows from scratch with a full format wipes it well enough. Because that is what I do to mine before giving old computers to family to use.

[MiRai]

Hopefully reinstalling Windows from scratch with a full format wipes it well enough. Because that is what I do to mine before giving old computers to family to use.
Probably not, but it's only a problem if they're using special software to dig up archaic stuff on the drive... and then they'd need to care enough about any material they did find... and then...

Well, what are you so worried about?

[JohnGabriel]

Probably not, but it's only a problem if they're using special software to dig up archaic stuff on the drive... and then they'd need to care enough about any material they did find... and then...

Well, what are you so worried about?

Only thing I can think of would be passwords saved by my browser, but thats not saved plain text. But my old hard drives only go to family and by the time they get rid of it they've been using it years so never had worries.

[Oatboat]

I usually get an External Case off of Newegg or Tigerdirect and keep them as Picture/Music/Backup drives. I've got about 3 older 250-500 gig external drives now doing this and its worked out pretty well.

Edit* Oh and anime... lots and lots of anime.