Hard disks keep getting bigger and bigger. How do you dispose of the older, smaller ones? Can't drill a hole into it.
Bash it with a hammer, you'll hear the platters shatter.
While this article on ATA Secure Erase is for SSD, it works for HDD as well.
The gist is that Secure Erase is a feature of drives since ~2000. It's a firmware based erasure so it will work faster, and it's more thorough in that all sectors on the disk are subject to erasure, not just the ones with LBAs (many do not have LBAs as they are reserved as bad sectors with latent data, or as replacement sectors). It's unfortunate we don't have this option in Disk Utility, it's necessary to use Linux to do this. You can use a Fedora 17 Live CD, which I think has hdparm on it - if not 'yum install hdparm' and it will be installed (even when booted from the CD).
Does not work through most USB/FW bridge chipsets, so more than likely you need it directly connected to a SATA bus.
Hard disks keep getting bigger and bigger. How do you dispose of the older, smaller ones? Can't drill a hole into it.
I'm pretty paranoid about my previous hard drives. I usually will do both murphycrhis' method and an overnight DBAN pass.
why dispose it? you can use all the old drives as JBOD disk. get a eSATA dock or IDE dock and keep using them
save the resource and save this Earth.
why dispose it? you can use all the old drives as JBOD disk. get a eSATA dock or IDE dock and keep using them
save the resource and save this Earth.
Disposal, for me, means sending to a reuse/recycling center, not chucking into the trash.
Bash it with a hammer, you'll hear the platters shatter.
Professionals use probably special heat sources like thermite (heat destroys magnetic information). I would open the HDD with the appropriate screwdriver (or another suitable tool), then i would cover the printed circuit board (PCB) and the platters with 1-2 pounds(s) iron oxide based thermite. The generated heat should destroy the information on the PCB and on the platters of the HDD.Old Hard Disk Disposal?
I take my power drill and drill a few holes through the case and into the platters
H2o will do the trick, just submerge it in a bucket