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/h...h-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...

Stephen