Posted on 07/26/2009 1:46:23 PM PDT by poiuqwer
> Can’t be done unless you work at a scrap yard and attach
> it to a magnetic car hoist.
:)
Here’s a commercially available bulk eraser/degausser.
http://www.magnetechcorp.com/Hard_drive_eraser.htm
Very pricey, though.
Better to just swallow the cost of a new drive, and use the old one for target practice.
I sincerely doubt it.
While made in China, the drives are purchased and distributed by companies in the US. Even if you send it back to “the manufacturer”, it’s not going to China but rather some tech shop here in the states. If the drive itself is bad, they’ll junk it, not send it overseas for repairs.
Anyone with sensitive data, in most government and/or military uses, also works under a policy that once a drive is used, it cannot ever leave chain of custody. If a drive fails, it is replaced, not repaired, and the original drive is destroyed. (Hence why drives should be in a proper RAID configuration, preferably with hot-swap drives for any type of production system.)
Now, that’s not to say that some unscrupulous tech won’t pull your personal data off of a drive sent in for repairs. But that tech doesn’t have to be working for the PRC to be doing that...
That's where I was going. A standard magnet(even super strong ones), or even bulk VHS tape erasers simply don't have enough to erase a hard drive.
How do you “RAID” external USB drives?
Oh she’d just SHOOT me! I probably wouldn’t even see it coming. :-)
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