Question for techies.

[Akoto]

Hello!

My dad's hard drive went kerput a little while ago. It has since been replaced, but because the old hard drive was in use for years, I'd like to dispose of it properly. There's nothing top secret in it, but certainly enough personal information that I wouldn't just want to drop it into the garbage.

I've never actually opened up a hard drive before, so can anyone please explain what I'm looking for inside, to dispose of? I'm told that hitting whatever that may be with a hammer, enough to shatter it into pieces small enough that they can't be reassembled, is usually good enough. Also, am I handling anything particularly toxic when I do this?

[Akoto]

1. One bump, for dad. :]

[ET Awful]

2. It never ceases to amaze me how worried people get over something

so insignificant.

If you want to destroy the drive, take an awl or other sharp tipped tool, punch a hole in the top and poor something gritty like sand or sugar in there.

That's permanent destruction that is well beyond what anyone would ever go through the trouble to repair.

Actually, you don't even have to go that far, pick up the drive, take it up a ladder and drop it 10 feet on to pavement, it's gone.

To recover the data from either of those would cost well over what anyone would be willing to spend.

[sendero]

3. There's a round thingie..

... in there called the platter. The platter is coated with a magnetic media, similar to what a cassette or videotape is coated with.

If you actually take the drive apart to where you can see the platter, scar or bust it and there is no chance of data recovery at any price.

Or, you could put it right under the front wheel of your car, drive over it then back up over it a few times and pitch it without worries :)

[pokerfan]

5. Use the platters for clay pigeons

and go Dick Cheney on them.

[Benfea]

4. Do you have a T-8 or T-6 torx wrench?

I can't remember which one precisely, but that's the easiest way to the innards of a hard drive. Do whatever destructive thing comes to mind to those platters in there and you should be fine.

[sendero]

6. If you don't have one...

.. you can get one at Pep Boys, Autozone, Lowes or Home Depot.

[Benfea]

8. Sears hardware carries them too.

Don't get an expensive one, and bring the drive into the store with you so you don't buy the wrong one. ;)

[TheBaldyMan]

7. you can d/l software that will overwrite all data so that it is ...

unrecoverable, there is a firm a few miles away from me that recycles computer equipment for schools and charities and the donor commercial firms are assured that the whole drive is scrambled past the point of data recovery before it is reformatted and placed in a new machine.

I don't know if there is a similar scheme near you but I think a web search will give you a few choices of data scrambling software, even if it is a temporary trial download it will work.