Just smack the old drive with hammer a couple of times. You will be able the hear the broken discs, and no one is gonna get anything off the drive after that. Oh wait! Did I say smack the drive with a hammer? What I meant was, any mishandling of the drive during shipping would be just the same as if you smacked it with a hammer a couple of times, and would surely beak the glass discs inside, rendering the hard drive completely unreadable.
Not quite. While some drives use ceramic discs, most still use aluminum alloy platters - and they're not going to be destroyed very easily.
A hard drive degausser is the best option - unfortunately, you need a powerful one (a cheap handheld will NOT erase a drive unless you remove the cover). Many computer shops/businesses have them now - though buying one to erase a single drive is probably not economical; they cost several hundred dollars).
"While some drives use ceramic discs"???? Which ones specifically? What models? What company?
"a cheap handheld will NOT erase a drive unless you remove the cover"??????
I have a Cheap handheld device looks like an Anvil originally designed to erase VHS Tapes.
I do not need to remove the cover to Deguauss Drives.
Drives are NO LONGER USEABLE after using the device due to it damaging the Low level format and the factory track.
DO NOT DEGAUSS Drives and DO NOT REMOVE COVERS if you intend to recycle or re-use a drive as both will void warranty and physically damage the drive rendering it un useable.
All parts sent out from dell say refirbished on them so that they dont have to pay Texas state Inventory Tax on them every year AND when they make a sale.
"no longer useable" and "securely erased and unrecoverable" are two VERY different things. Federal/state and DOD requirements for data wipe will not be met by any cheap handheld degausser - the coercivity of modern drive platters is too high, and remember, the magnetic field decreases as a function of the square of the distance from the platter - you simply cannot get such a device close enough to the platter to securely erase it. So, if you're using one, you're under a very false sense of security that the drive can't be recovered - it almost certainly can, given someone who's determined to do so.
Use the right equipment and no one will recover data from the drive.
Drives I know have used ceramic (sometimes falsely called "glass" platters: the IBM Deathstars and many of the IBM/Hitachi Deskstar successors; at least some Toshiba and Fujitsu mobile drives - and likely others. Most platters are still made from aluminum alloy, but some drive makers use ceramic - in fact, the fact that the IBM 75GXP series was among the first to do so has been implicated as one of the reasons they were so unreliable. First adopters of any new technology usually blaze a trail, and not always a smooth one.
If you want to physically destroy the drive, you cannot use the warranty - you will need to replace the drive yourself at your expense. If you use the warranty, they will require the return of the original drive.
I have the exact same problem and agree with your comments and concerns. My hard drive is damaged so I am unable to use any of the security programs that delete or destroy the confidential data I have saved. Physically destroying the hard drive is not an option prior to returning it?
Has anyone provided you with a solution or does anybody have a solution for this problem? This is a personal computer. What did you do?
:^/ A completely theoretical possibility, tossed in more for fun than for practicality, but what about the enormous electromagnets seen sometime at automobile wrecking yards? They're powerful enough to lift cars, perhaps they'd be sufficient to wipe a hard drive without opening it?
Put a drive in a cardboard box to prevent scratches, let it stick to the electromagnet while you and the wrecking yard guy share a pizza, and the drive should be clean afterward. Send it back under warranty, and no one will be able to recover your private data.
;^)°º(They may wonder why paper clips now stick to your drive, though....)
Morpheousman
171 Posts
0
June 4th, 2009 20:00
Just smack the old drive with hammer a couple of times. You will be able the hear the broken discs, and no one is gonna get anything off the drive after that. Oh wait! Did I say smack the drive with a hammer? What I meant was, any mishandling of the drive during shipping would be just the same as if you smacked it with a hammer a couple of times, and would surely beak the glass discs inside, rendering the hard drive completely unreadable.
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
June 5th, 2009 05:00
Not quite. While some drives use ceramic discs, most still use aluminum alloy platters - and they're not going to be destroyed very easily.
A hard drive degausser is the best option - unfortunately, you need a powerful one (a cheap handheld will NOT erase a drive unless you remove the cover). Many computer shops/businesses have them now - though buying one to erase a single drive is probably not economical; they cost several hundred dollars).
speedstep
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
0
June 5th, 2009 06:00
"While some drives use ceramic discs"???? Which ones specifically? What models? What company?
"a cheap handheld will NOT erase a drive unless you remove the cover"??????
I have a Cheap handheld device looks like an Anvil originally designed to erase VHS Tapes.
I do not need to remove the cover to Deguauss Drives.
Drives are NO LONGER USEABLE after using the device due to it damaging the Low level format and the factory track.
DO NOT DEGAUSS Drives and DO NOT REMOVE COVERS if you intend to recycle or re-use a drive as both will void warranty and physically damage the drive rendering it un useable.
Definitely DOES NOT COST Hundreds of dollars.
http://www.8-track-shack.com/robins-universal-magnetic-tape-eraser-for-cassettes-8-tracks-reel-vhs-etc-p-48462.html
The Rare Metal Permanent Magnet type Does require cover removal and does cost hundreds of dollars.
http://www.datalinksales.com/degaussers/v85.htm
This is not some theory. I have intentially degaussed drives to see if data can be recovered from them afterwards.
The permanent damage to the drive was one of the things I found out after degaussing a drive with a cheap handheld device.
speedstep
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
0
June 5th, 2009 06:00
All parts sent out from dell say refirbished on them so that they dont have to pay Texas state Inventory Tax on them every year AND when they make a sale.
Dell
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
June 5th, 2009 07:00
"no longer useable" and "securely erased and unrecoverable" are two VERY different things. Federal/state and DOD requirements for data wipe will not be met by any cheap handheld degausser - the coercivity of modern drive platters is too high, and remember, the magnetic field decreases as a function of the square of the distance from the platter - you simply cannot get such a device close enough to the platter to securely erase it. So, if you're using one, you're under a very false sense of security that the drive can't be recovered - it almost certainly can, given someone who's determined to do so.
Use the right equipment and no one will recover data from the drive.
Drives I know have used ceramic (sometimes falsely called "glass" platters: the IBM Deathstars and many of the IBM/Hitachi Deskstar successors; at least some Toshiba and Fujitsu mobile drives - and likely others. Most platters are still made from aluminum alloy, but some drive makers use ceramic - in fact, the fact that the IBM 75GXP series was among the first to do so has been implicated as one of the reasons they were so unreliable. First adopters of any new technology usually blaze a trail, and not always a smooth one.
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
October 19th, 2009 10:00
If you want to physically destroy the drive, you cannot use the warranty - you will need to replace the drive yourself at your expense. If you use the warranty, they will require the return of the original drive.
DWM1
1 Message
0
October 19th, 2009 10:00
Mike:
I have the exact same problem and agree with your comments and concerns. My hard drive is damaged so I am unable to use any of the security programs that delete or destroy the confidential data I have saved. Physically destroying the hard drive is not an option prior to returning it?
Has anyone provided you with a solution or does anybody have a solution for this problem? This is a personal computer. What did you do?
Don
Mr._Pseudonym
2 Intern
•
315 Posts
0
October 20th, 2009 04:00
:^/ A completely theoretical possibility, tossed in more for fun than for practicality, but what about the enormous electromagnets seen sometime at automobile wrecking yards? They're powerful enough to lift cars, perhaps they'd be sufficient to wipe a hard drive without opening it?
Put a drive in a cardboard box to prevent scratches, let it stick to the electromagnet while you and the wrecking yard guy share a pizza, and the drive should be clean afterward. Send it back under warranty, and no one will be able to recover your private data.
;^)°º(They may wonder why paper clips now stick to your drive, though....)