This question from Greg R. came in for ExtremeTech editor Loyd Case:
What is the best way to ensure that nobody can recover any information from a hard drive that's being thrown away? The drive is very old; though it's still operational, it isn't worth putting into a new computer or external enclosure. It holds the OS and all files. I want to pull all documents and such, then effectively wipe the drive clean and/or destroy it before throwing it away.
Loyd's answer after the jump:
Loyd's reply:
It's very easy, depending on the level of security you're seeking.
At a base level, you can just reformat the drive. However, anyone with a little knowledge and the right disk utility software can unformat the drive.
What you really want is to write meaningless data to the drive. There are commercial utilities, such as Acronis Drive Cleanser (www.acronis.com), as well as free utilities, including Darik's Boot and Nuke (dban.sourceforge.net), that will do the job.
These utilities work by writing either random data or strings of zeroes to every sector of the drive. One pass is usually good enough for most users. If you're really paranoid, you'll want to run multiple passes, with random data. It is possible for knowledgeable people to retrieve data from drives that have had a single wipe pass performed. Bear in mind, however, that this can take many, many hours.
If what you want to do is completely destroy the drive, you'll need to first wipe it using the above software. Then you can open it up (using the right tools), remove the platters, and break them up. But that seems a little excessive. I'd suggest simply recycling it with any local electronics recycler after performing a software wipe.
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June 9, 2008 8:06 PM
just leave it under water for a day. Then hit it with a hammer in the middle 5 times and dump it or give it to recycling. You dont need software to wipe out hard drive totally.
June 9, 2008 10:22 PM
I prefer using dban's DoD wipe for any drive that has (had) personal data on it. Once wiped it gets taped to the 50 yd target board at the local gun range. A few .44's or .308's insure nothing is going to be recovered. Overkill, possibly..... but definitely cathartic.
June 10, 2008 10:37 PM
just beat the shit outta it, thats all. Its actually alot of fun to.
October 7, 2008 7:49 PM
Actually if it is a Dell - a single drop of coffee on the 'd' key will satisfy the desired result. Dell just doesn't promote it. But take it from me, one hard drive down and it works.