I have ~10 HDDs that I’d like to dispose of. For a while, I tended to buy unwarrantied used disks for my NAS, so these have all failed in some form or another over the years. I can’t just toss them, because they have my (unencrypted) data on them, but I can’t wipe them either since they don’t mount anymore. I want a simple and reliable way to render the contents unrecoverable. A nation state is not part of my threat model, but any kind of data reconstruction that could be bought with civilian money is.
I’ve tried:
- Smashing with tools (largely ineffective)
- Punching holes with a drill press (how many holes are needed to ruin the disk? Also I’ve broken/dulled a few bits doing this)
Edit: Disassembly doesn’t seem like an option, I’ve removed every screw I can find and any sticker or PCB that might be covering other screws. The top cover seems to have been pressure fitted or spot welded on. There’s not even the tiniest gap to pry open.
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Just a simple hole renders them useless. The only method to reconstruct them from there would be any kind of SEM or AFM which would still take weeks to months to years depending on the size/density of the drives.
Even just opening them up and smacking the disks would be sufficient
Next time just encrypt them.
Taking the top plate off and smashing the platters directly is extremely effective if a little time consuming.
They shatter like glass.
Imma join the disassembly gang. Takes no more than a minute to unscrew and take the top off, then you take a hammer and give it some direct hits. Could additionally take the magnet that’s inside (or an even stronger one) and give the disks a few swoops if you like. (And now you have a free magnet!)
Warrantied drives still fail, they just happen to ship you a replacement.
Commercial drive trashing solutions are basically a smaller, fancier version of the mechanism in a log splitter.
You could probably rig a sketchy drive wedge/bending thing with a pump jack rather easily.
Wear PPE.The odds of someone taking a failed drive and transplanting the platters to a working drive is pretty low to begin with.
Me? I don’t have tons of drives to destroy, so I just unscrew the thing, get the platters out and smash those.
Open them up with a screwdriver and then either smash the disks inside or continue dissassembling it for fun before destroying the disks.
You need a $50 neodymium magnet and direct access to the platters
Some other comments mention shattering platters, but that’s only true for what are typically laptop drives. Most full-size drives are full metal and bend and break into a few large pieces, not really shatter like glass.
Anything that will physically disable them will work. They make bending jigs, but you could also just use a sledgehammer, or prop them up at an angle and drive over them. Drill a few holes, at least one through the head assembly. Or take them to the range and put some bullet holes in them. They definitely won’t spin up after that.
Salt water.
Back in the 70’s my dad worked for controll data - I think when Cray still worked for them. One day uniforned military came to the lab he was in with a failed haredrived handcuffed to them (i’m guessing this would have been a 14 inch drive?). They watched while the lab opened the drive to find physically warped platters, then used rags to wipe the oxide off, took the rags tothe parking lot and burned them.
not sure how practical that is for you but it was once the standard to be sure.
Microwave. Strong magnets. Drills. Scrapyard shredders. Volcanoes.
