A few years ago I bought a computer off eBay from someone upgrading to a newer model. Although he had deleted a bunch of stuff, I found a login ID that was deleted but the partition still existed. It was his girlfriend’s login on the computer, full of private financial and personal information. I’m not that type of person to take advantage of that, and I wiped the data. With that information to bank accounts, SSI#, passwords etc. I could have wreaked havoc in her life. Just goes to show you, do secure multiple wipes of hard drives in your computer before selling it.
Went back next day (it was a Saturday/Sunday sale),told the guy what I found and he said "you look like an honest guy,I know you won't abuse it".
Well,I *am* and honest guy and *didn't* abuse it
But....yikes! Foolish guy!
Fixed to a 4x4 post, it makes a good target for my Beowulf .50cal. And a new seagate sata 500gb 7200rpm replacement, is a cheap $50 or so.
“formatting a drive erases data”
No, it doesn’t. Even deleting the partition won’t, unless the sectors are overwritten.
Two options with hard drives.
Target practice
Dismantle them. The platters make great coasters. The super powerful magnets can hold a cast iron skillet to the refrigerator.
I have a magnet that you could tow the Queen Mary with.
CCleaner. Free drive wiper. Wipes the drive or just free space. Several levels of depth available. I use it regularly.
Who sells a used hard Drive? That’s crazy.
Make wind chimes out if them, or trip wires. Whatever floats your boat. Just degauss them first.
They’d make good targets too. Be creative.
I remove all old hard drives, take them apart, and then use a MAP torch to melt the actual platters.
I destroy mine. Typically they are old and outdated enough not to be much of a concern.
I have a fine collection of old hard drives and computers in my attic. None of them are reusable - most are tiny capacity by today’s standards. One of these here days I’m going to remove and smash the drives and put the computers out for trash pickup. I’m not getting rid of a usable drive, even if the personal information on it is outdated.
My hard drive crashed on my iMac a few years ago.
I took the computer to the genius store to have the drive replaced. They told me they keep the old drive.
I said that’s my data on there, I might pay someone to recover it.
They wouldn’t replace the drive unless I agreed to give them the old one, so I went to a third party tech store and had it done.
I sell mine to lois lerner