How to destroy 60 hard drives an hour

Easy way to do a few at a time....

From experience, a .3030 at 20 paces can do 3 at a time.

Two shots at about $.50/pop = something that would sound like Baghdad for $11.5k.

And much more fun too.

Load times for external stylesheets...

had your title "How to destroy 60 hard drives an hour" right next to your advertisement "Test Drive Sun's Quad-Core Intel Xeon systems today"

@ Tim

Well said. Very eloquently spoken. And a F*ck you to all the haters who seem to think that they have a right to judge! FFS, i wouldn't mind betting that all the people, that commented negatively, would give their eye teeth for the ability to provide for their family as this man can. All you have to do is concentrate and work hard. A concept lost on most of the inhabitants of this green and pleasant land!

Hehe...

Not as much fun as my method... For years I've been destroying old hard drives for work... I used to take them apart and use the platters to make wind chimes. Given that most drives stripe data across multiple platters, once they're removed from the spindles and strung together (also involved having some small holes drilled in them), you'd really be hard pushed to get any sense out of them.

However, recently I had a big batch of them which the boss insisted I destroyed completely without any chance of data being recovered, he even asked for proof... Easy... Line the drives up and slice them in half (case and all) with an oxyacetylene cutting torch. Much fun... I took half a drive back to the office and asked if he'd like me to plug it in!

I'll admit thermite would be more spectacular, but with a torch you can be far more creative... I'll see what I can do...

The icon, well come one, it's gotta be hasn't it!

Off-shoring price undercut!

<Jerzei Belowski>

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</Jerzei Belowski>

I reckon I can do 60 drives per hour with a trusty claw hammer, and I'll do it for hal price.

I defy anyone to read data off a platter that has been hammered into a U-shape.

zeroes

can someone explain how writing zeroes doesn't erase data? I don't get it.

Talk about doing things the hard way...

All you need to do is put the only copy of a critical file on the drive. Within minutes, the drive will no longer be functional, and the data will be irrecoverable.

Works every friggin bloody time.

Plasma Cutter should do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cutting

Used one of these on an old BMW (years back). Cut through anything, and what's more it sounds mad too.

Re: zeroes

I too was once perplexed by this so I asked a contact who works in a data recovery centre about this a few years ago. It's called redundancy.

Now most people who know anything about how magnetic media store data understand the principle that a particle magnetised one way (N-S) represents a 0 and magnetised the other way (S-N) represents a 1. But then they imagine that 1 particle represents 1 bit of data, and this is not the case. What actually happens is that 1 bit can be represented by *dozens* of particles. When a 0 is written to what was previously a 1, *most* (but not all) of the particles are polarised to point in the 0-direction. Some are missed because of the speed at which the drive works. Even multiple writes won't change ALL of the particles - the number that do change with each write reduces with successive writes. All that matters as far as the drive controller is concerned is that if most of the particles are magnetised in the 0-direction, the bit is a 0, even if a few particles still point in the 1-direction.

Now a dedicated platter scanner (such as what my contact used at work) can scan a platter and read what the minority amount of particles are set to, rather than the majority as the drive head does. In this way, it is possible to retrieve overwritten data even if the drive has been zero-formatted multiple times.

Another option

Hmmmm, I think we should be putting the responsibilty back onto the computer manufacturers. They should be making drives that are much easier to destroy.

I'll get my coat, it's the one with the Thermite in the left pocket and hard drive platter wind chimes on the back.

reminds me of my last pocket pc/cell phone and it's untimely demise...

the bastard dropped one call too many, so I had it run over by a fully loaded M1-A2 tank. The remains are in a baggy hanging over my desk.

That was simply the most liberating thing I've ever done, to destroy a piece of equipment.

Quite frankly all of the ideas for drive destruction are great, but the smart & most entertainment for the money definately has to go to Thermite.

On a side note, I think El Reg owes it to the world of IT to hold a contest for the most thorough AND verifiable method of toasting a drive. The person who does it cheapest wins technical immortality, fame, women (or men, or what ever trips your trigger), a pint hoisted in the winner's name and possibly a coffee mug or T-Shirt.

I'd be willing to pony up $3.00 to the prize pot...

Are we about done with the stupid solutions?

The article (and one commentor) mentions that Degaussing doesn't (always) work, but still it's suggested a few times. Plus a heap of repeated variations on the smash/blowup protocol, and how it will cost between say 0 and 150 quid.

OK, done with the amateurism? If you make your own process, not only will it fail every so often (see above) but it will ruin your company's ISO 9001 (or similar) status, or require them an audit of the method costing, costing a multiple of said 11 500quid.

This method is (or should be) a certified method to both reliably DESTROY a HD and KEEP a record of this destruction.

Or are you satisfied and not doubtful at all if say the tax people, FBI or LLNL weapons techies claim that they have most assuredly destroyed sensitive records, and not mislaid them at all? Idiots.

My Favourite Method

My favourite method is to take the drive cover off, bridge both positive and both negative leads and hook them up to 2-12V car batteries wired up in series. I get the platters going nice and quick, then drop something abrasive or sharp on them. I find a dental pick works well, as does random bits of rocks (properly secured, of course). It's a helluva lot of fun, and I doubt anyone would want to bother with my data anyway. :-P

@ Jonathan Adams and the deguasser guy

I've tried boot and nuke, it's fine until it comes across a bad sector, then it really really slows down.

Instead, I take the top off, and hit the platters and heads with a claw hammer, so I get lots of dents and buckled platters. (I was most suprised at the first IBM drive I came across, no dents just a load of shattered glass!)

I wasn't too suprised about the deguasser, inside the (desktop) hard drive is a powerful magnet used for moving the head about. It's a bit strange, for years been told keep data away from magnets, speakers etc etc, and there's a magnet inside the dam thing! Not sure about lappy drivers, I just hit them till they start rattling!

Cilit Bang...

Inject this through the air hole & BANG the porn is gone.

@Robert - zeroes

The magnetic heads modify the magnetic patterns to within certain tolerances, but there will be traces of the old patterns left behind.

If you're just writing zeroes repeatedly, the pattern left on a "1" bit will be a bit stronger than that left on a "0" bit. There's also likely to be a bit of leakage around the edges due to imprecision in seeking the drive heads. The weakened pattern will likely be there even after multiple passes.

If you want to keep a drive in working order (but otherwise erased), you will want to write randomised data repeatedly over the entire drive, in such a fashion that the degree of "fading" will not be predictable.

So while writing zeroes is good enough for attempts to read data using the shipped drive electronics, it will not protect against a determined attacker with the right specialised tools.

...Ronny

I would love to drill Paris hard....

I am a big Paris fan

But back on topic. Why not throw them all into an active volcano - costs nothing and I think the lava will do all that needs to be done.....

yummy

never tried a birthday party of a legion of 5 years children ?

or more realistic , never though on a steamroller ? i think that a person who need to "terminate" a so high quantity i think got much space to play with a steamroller.

RE: Sceptical Bastard

> but those high-end processes cost thousands of pounds. Be honest - is anyone

> *that* interested in your data?

nail meet head,

a relative asked just the other day what he should do with his old harddrive, i recommended running 'boot & nuke' then pulling out the old drive and hitting it a few times with a lump hammer and then chucking it in the bin

even if 'imaginary criminal' got hold of every drive thrown away, i'm sure they'd be considerably wealthier if they didn't spend thousands on recovering the data from every damaged drive mostly full of holiday pictures, letters to aunt maud and malware which slowed the old pc down so much they end up buying a new pc

methinks most replies on here have a extra dose of paranoia mixed with geeky fun

Just overwrite with /dev/random && bend platters

I use a cheap 4 step method:

1st : dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/hdX

(just overwrite the data with RANDOM data, best a couple of times for the truly paranoid)

2nd: Use the torx set, open the case, and bend the platters

3rd: DO Not reassemble the drive

4th: Move them to your local used electronics disposal unit for metal recycling.

@Brian

Hmm, you may just have hit on a solution to the Holy Grail of Expense Account claims. How to get reimbursed by the company for a Barrett Light .50 and a large box of ammunition.

Yes please, the really sharp one with the pockets full of dodgy receipts.

I would happily pay that money...

it's good value when you look at the practical uses for it:

Not only is it useful for destroying data of non-paying clients when all else fails, but also serves as a handy spot to mount their testicles for extra encouragement.

Hammer and Nails

My quick solution to destroying a hard drive is to buy a large hammer from Wilkos costing about £2.50 then get the hard drive and gently place on floor (or drop it on to a hard surface with height), and smash the devil to pieces.

Genius!

Handy....

... for when the Obscene Materials bill gets past!

Re: Microwaving

A microwave will fry the drive's electronics in a second, making it unusable by a computer, but the data on the actual glass or plastic platter would take a little more to render unreadable. Come to think of it, hard disk casings are Faraday cages, so the platters won't be affected at all unless the casing is seriously damaged. Getting there with a microwave would probably total the microwave before the data-carrying layers on the platters even notice anything is happening.

Shattering the platters sounds pretty safe to me; most magnetic methods are unsafe (unless we count the use of an induction oven -- that would vapourise the data-carrying layers on non-metallic carriers and the carriers themselves if metallic...)

@AC (Degausser)

A tape wipe won't work; the hard drive is in the equivalent of a miniature Faraday cage. HDD Degaussers are FAR more robust (do not operate with fillings kind of thing).

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned driving a few nails through the top of the case with a pneumatic gun.

@ Adrian Esdaile

"I defy anyone to read from platters in a U shape"

Oh really? One word: U-tube. :-)

Kilit Bang

Simple instructions for wrecking disks (simple to me anyway)

1. Use screwdriver to undo 6 (or more) screws.

2. Put flat blade screwdriver between platters or between platter and case

3. Twist

Disk are bent and unreadable.

60 per hour? Maybe not but its not $11500 either. Just depends how many you need wrecking.

What a shame that they banned nuclear testing

I would imagine an H-bomb would be a good way to melt a few hundred thousand drives at once...

Perhaps we could make a deal with the North Koreans (just an A-bomb, I know, but still could be effective...)

RE: Zeroes.

Thanks everybody. I almost understand now.

Thermite - the choice of hard professionals

In the Army we used to have thermite grenades in case of a base attack, forgetting just hard drives, these things would liquidate the insides of computers, bespoke hardware etc and just leave a molten mess in seconds!

The only faster / flasher method was the Russians who had nukes aimed at our bases...

Buddy, and a garage

Get a welding machine and you can make the drive useless for a lot less.

As for the Maxtor Drives

These are tough bastards. One of an old 10GB model was pummled for 10 minutes. Such a good job was done the casing had practically broke in 2.

However a (non IT) manager tells us that there was users data on it (It beggars belief how many users will NOT save on the frigging network) and can we please get her data. After showing him the damage he still requests an attempt. One hour later I had managed to prise what was left of the case off to reveal un damaged platters!!!!!. Moved them to a good (same spec) drive and hey prestro, the users files back, well all frigging 25MB of it........;-)

Oh and I won a £50 bet as well.

Bashing with a hammer does not always work.....although it is fantastic fun.

/Penguin cause it has the IQ of a normal User

Nuke 'em from orbit...

...it's the only way to be *sure*.

Drop 'em from LEO and watch the pretty sparks as they hit atmosphere at eighteen thousand mph.

Mine's the pressure suit...

Another vote for thermite here...

or... how about a plasma torch????

hard drive survives Columbia shuttle crash

Ability to retrieve data from old "destroyed" hard disks? How about this -- 99% of hard disk data recovered after Columbia crash:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/06/hard-drive-recovered-from-shuttle-columbia-used-to-complete-expe/

Not mentioned if it was run-of-the-mill 24x7 enterprise/military model from X+5 years ago certified for space X years ago, or a premium line of 400M Seagate purpose-built for NASA? (either way, obvious publicity for Seagate?)

Tragic event it was, so many lessons learned. Highly recommend to read-up on the Columbia accident commission review and formal analysis of failure points. Enlightening. This late hard-disk data retrieval adds a memorable perspective to the "lessons learned" chapter.

Institutions suck at anticipation: usually takes a disaster (or large series of lesser accidents) to dig-out procedural, technical, or esp. systemic failures, and progress from findings. No amount of prior warning can do.

...now, where are those bloody disks with financial records crossed with medical check results from the Trans-Atlantic ACME Insurance Corp? Didn't Jake from HMRC promise they would be quietly posted last week???

thermite my arse

Has any one here actually used thermite? Its effective for some things but not for this kinda thing.

Also the chemical fumes comming off a Hd being Roasted would be generally very very toxic.

We used to kill drives like this:

remove circuit board.

open drive. seperate platters, sand with belt sander then smash platter

the assemble the pile and place in bucket of cuastic soloution leave over night outside inthe air.. so u dont die also.

i dont think anyone would have the cash or resources to try to recover them