secure erase drive errors

[Ronal B Morse]

On 06/24/2015 11:51 AM, Fred Smith wrote:
> 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! :)
>
>
The local PC recycling center shreds hard drives. Used to charge $5 per, 
but I haven't used them lately.

RBM

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