secure erase drive errors

[Fred Smith]

On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 11:46:38AM -0600, jd1008 wrote:
> 
> 
> On 06/23/2015 11:46 PM, Tim wrote:
> >jd1008:
> >>>I will be resorting to a powerfull de-gausser :)
> >Joe Zeff:
> >>Depending on your tastes, using it for target practice will do the job.
> >What about, hard drives roasting on an open fire?  (Yes, I did sing it
> >in my head to /that/ song.)
> >
> >A strong degausser is a bit of an esoteric thing, and I don't think I'd
> >trust my CRT degaussing wand to be strong enough.  I've pulled drives
> >apart before, but that's a lot effort (tiny odd screws, sometimes
> >seriously jammed into place), then bent the disc platters to buggery.
> >
> >While seriously annoying and time-consuming to do, it was also quite
> >satisfying to mangle the bugger to death.
> >
> I was told that dismantling it surgically is both entertaining and
> educating :)
> 
> I have never dismantled one before  !
> 
> The degausser I am talking about sucks 20 amps at 110V AC.
> So, it is a very powerful magnet!
> I am not sure if the micro-electronic elements would survive it though.
> Failing that, I will try to 'entertain' and 'educate' myself by surgically
> dismantling the beast. In fact I would also like to give the ROMs to a
> friend (HW and FW engineer) who has equipment to read the ROMs,
> and disassemble the contents. The kaspersky revelation that the HD
> roms contain malware was a very interesting article.


I imagine that anold reel-to-reel tape eraser would do a nice job on
the platters, if you could get 'em separated from their spindle.

several years ago someone passed aroujnd a URL for a video of
someone withh a heavy duty industrial shredding machinebeing used
for destroying hard drives. it was a couple of big metal rollers
(a foot or more in diameter) with massive lugs sticking out.
you drop a HD in the hopper and watch as the entire thing is
reduced to small metal bits. I imagine it could really be
cathartic! :)


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