[Tfug] Destroying a hard drive

[Jude Nelson]

Take a "detour" to Mexico, pick up a few M-80s, tape them to the drives,
wire fuses into them, place the drives and explosives under an aluminum
trashcan that you never want to see again (preferably outside), hide behind
a relatively stable barrier (i.e. behind a concrete wall, around a corner,
etc), wire the fuses to you, light them, plug ears, and watch the drives
shatter and the trashcan achieve orbital altitude :)

...or you could take the boring way out and unscrew the chassis and remove
all the platters (and they're about as destructible as CDs--only a few
scrapes are needed for them to be unreadable).


On 9/7/07, Matt Jacob <matt.jacob at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Very good suggestions everyone. Thanks!
>
> People at work (this *is* for official work business, after all) have
> all kinds of destructive equipment, so it looks like we're down to the
> following:
>
> a) Power drill with titanium bit (several holes, or until it stops being
> fun)
> b) Oxy-acetylene torching to melt the platters together
> c) Target practice w/Mossberg 500 Persuader and 12-ga slugs
> d) Sledgehammer (self-explanatory)
>
> We have 5 drives with client data on them, so maybe we'll try a couple
> different methods to see which one yields the most entertainment
> value. (FWIW, someone at work suggested using a "professional" data
> destruction service, but that would completely negate the
> aforementioned entertainment value.)
>
> Pictures to follow in the next couple weeks...
>
> On 9/7/07, Matthew Shucker <mshucker at arizona.edu> wrote:
> > > On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:40:44 -0700, Matt Jacob <matt.jacob at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > What's the best/easiest way to physically destroy a hard drive? I
> have
> > > > some old drives that are completely dead, and thus, I can't use
> > > > software such as Darik's Boot and Nuke to wipe them. I'm thinking
> that
> > > > a couple holes with a power drill would do the trick, but security
> is
> > > > the top priority here.
> >
> > Build something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yISqCAnROh8
> >
> > ... but with a more explosive target.
> >
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