disposal of harddrives

[sunward]

Just a little warning when disposing of harddrives or any data devices (cd's and dvd's)

Just read a post on another forum ( unrelated to seo) about what can happen.

Seems the person threw out a hd, along with other computer parts, thinking it was bad.

The hd ended up being siezed in a raid and arrest of someone storing inappropriate pictures on the hd.

But the original person's contact information was still on the hd.

Five agents with a search warrant show up on this person's door about a year later. Take all computers, tapes, vcr taps, etc.

When disposing of hd's, cd's, dvd's, and any thing else with data, make sure they are properly wiped of data and or disposed of.

[Kryvast]

Try the complete destruction of the disk platters method, it's easy at http://driveslag.eecue.com/

[Shido]

Wow

That's a bit overkill for data protection isn't it?!

[greenfinger]

Hey, that's a really good idea recycling the metal from your broken drives, especially if you're into metalwork

[funnyman]

Do what I do... take a hammer and smash your old hard drives to an early death. Selling your old hard drive is not worth the risk. Besides, smashing the things gets out some anger and tension.

[ptamdagr8]

before disposing, overwrite the existing datas with some other safe ones... that's one easy solution as i've heard.

[greenfinger]

On a more serious note, "overwrite the existing datas with some other safe ones" is not nearly enough. The only way to truly destroy data on a disk is to write over each and every block of the disk.

There are programmes which will do several passes over the disk, writing either random or uniform data to each and every block to ensure a complete and total erase. These will require you to shove your drive on a slave connection.

However, If you only want to delete some specific files, and don't want to attach your disk as a slave (you cannot erase a disk that is 'in use' by the operating system, there is a command-line utility for DOS/Windows called SDelete. It is a freeware tool from Sysinternals (which is now Microsoft).

[Krazy]

Originally Posted by funnyman

Do what I do... take a hammer and smash your old hard drives to an early death. Selling your old hard drive is not worth the risk. Besides, smashing the things gets out some anger and tension.

the best method!

[BradP]

Originally Posted by sunward

Just a little warning when disposing of harddrives or any data devices (cd's and dvd's)

Just read a post on another forum ( unrelated to seo) about what can happen.

Seems the person threw out a hd, along with other computer parts, thinking it was bad.

The hd ended up being siezed in a raid and arrest of someone storing inappropriate pictures on the hd.

But the original person's contact information was still on the hd.

Five agents with a search warrant show up on this person's door about a year later. Take all computers, tapes, vcr taps, etc.

When disposing of hd's, cd's, dvd's, and any thing else with data, make sure they are properly wiped of data and or disposed of.

scary, and the guy did not even sell his hd, only throwing them out and then being arrested.

smash it to pieces is still the best method.

[XoDiViAoX]

thats crazy

[selfhelpebooks]

Yes, destroying your hard drive is much better than selling it. Imagine if you accidentally download child pictures or something. Can get into trouble.

[Kryvast]

Try Disk Wiping aka. Data Dump

[busman3000]

Out of curiosity . Has anyone ever tried to burn a platter? on a stove or fire

[posylane]

A microwave will take care of CDs. It won't hurt your microwave and it looks cool. You only need a couple of seconds, stop your microwave after that.

Hard disk platters are made of glass or aluminum. A hammer will keep anything you have private short of the goverment.