How do I destroy the data on a crashed hard drive?

2-26-2009 | Me

[pillut48]

I have the opposite question—how do you RECOVER data on a crashed hard drive? I googled some places online, and the cheapest I found was around a thousand bucks or so!!! Too steep for me—I just want baby pictures and videos recovered! Is there an easier/cheaper way to do this???

[allmost]

Hammer+fire

[Mad Dawgg]

"How do I destory the data on a crashed hard drive?"

"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit;
it's the only way to be sure."

[ETL]

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22hard+drive%22+wipe&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz2

[Kurt Evans]

My problem now is how do I destroy the data ...

Circulate an ugly rumor about it.

[Frantzie]

Isn’t this kind of a bad idea for the microwave?? ;-)

[pillut48]

Do you think if you give it to Congress, they’ll ruin it in a heartbeat?? They seem to be specializing in ruining things *cough*LIKE OUR ECONOMY*cough* so one little hard drive oughta be a breeze for HolyO and his congress cronies!!
(Sounds like a good name for a rock band!)

[Tempest]

big magnet then microwave.

[bigbob]

let me expand on my “Hammer” suggestion a bit.

Envision your least favorite politician’s face. Superimpose this image in your mind over the hard drive before you.

Now, “HAMMER!”

Tastes great AND less filling!

[KoRn]

Cast it into the fire of Mt Doom.

[unkus]

.44 Magnum

[Big_Monkey]

Not really. A grand seems a little steep, but I haven’t had to do it in years. It’s very laborious and tedious, so the cost is commensurate with the task. Sorry.

[JerseyHighlander]

If you can get the drive to spin up at boot, you can try Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN), Shareware.
If you aren’t concerned about the DoD trying to reconstruct your hard drive, disassembling the drive, and taking a electric drill and pressing across to shave, and through to puncture, is a sure bet.

[Paleo Conservative]

I googled some places online, and the cheapest I found was around a thousand bucks or so!!! Too steep for me—I just want baby pictures and videos recovered! Is there an easier/cheaper way to do this???

It just depends on how valuable the data is. It might be worthwhile to spend a few thousand to get millions of dollars worth of data.

[pillut48]

Well, wah. :-(

Looks like a job for my engineer husband to tackle! Thanks anyway!

[mysterio]

[Red Steel]

Here:

http://www.semshred.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/606

[Terpfen]

Physically destroy it. You don’t need to worry about electronic means of data wiping if the hard drive platters are shattered into pieces.

Sledgehammers work well.

[Big_Monkey]

I would add, or ask. Does your hard drive make any unusual noises when booting or seeking? If not, you may just have a bad MBR, which is much easier to fix. If you don’t quite have the technical skills, you could take it to a Geek Squad or the like and it would only be 100-200.

But, if the HD has had a catastrophic physical failure, it’s going to get expensive.

[death2tyrants]