Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tigerstyleone]

I have an old Western Digital HD ? It still works fine 320 GB and I have data on it, but I don't want it anymore.

What should I do with it? Destroy? Delete? How ?

[Skippy]

Use a wipe program like Eraser http://eraser.heidi.ie/ A simple one pass wipe will do. If you are really paranoid do a multiple pass. But overall a one pass wipe will do as I can not think of somebody that will want to spend 10s of thousand of dollars and time to try and undelete you mp3s and school documents.

Then sell the drive for 10 or 20 dollars, heck more or give the drive away-maybe a friend or student might won't it. Actually I would copy any files you really need like old photos and send it to family member back home as backup to hold on just in case - case.

If you are really desperate you can get a hammer and start pounding away. When completely demolished throw away.

[nukeday]

i'll takeit

[Gaber]

another option is to do a quick format, then take one large file like a DVD rip and copy/paste it till you fill the whole drive. That makes sure than any recoverable data will be replaced by versions of your file. Then quick format again

[Taiwantroll]

Depends on how thorough you want the information destroyed?

Do you need to protect it from individuals or corporations or the government? (If you are a spy, just ask Q [James Bond reference])

Darik's Boot and Nuke is considered the industry standard for full disk wiping. You can find that here.

http://dban.org

For full protection you can

1. melt it with a blowtorch
2. freeze it with nitros oxide
3. use a sledgehammer, then a powerful blender to reduce it to a fine dust
4. pour the dust into any large body of water

[archmagos]

[Underwaterbob]

A microwave would do a nice neat job of it too.

[kpfogey]

if you'd like to keep the hd as usable to give/sell, you can do this simply with windows 7

do a regular quick format on the drive and then
open up an administrator command prompt and type
'cipher /w <driveletter>:'

it'll fill the hdd with random 1's and 0's

yeah, and it's good to make sure the computer is virus free so when you wipe it, it wont be infected again from the viruses that self-propogate to mounted drives not unlike most computers i see in korea.

here's a link that explains it
http://www.dkszone.net/permanently-delete-data-builtin-cipher-tool-windows-7

[ThingsComeAround]

A powerful magnet

[pkang0202]

[balzor]

smack it with a hammer.

[languistic]

[ed]

what I did was get a torx screwdriver and open mine up then

remove the disks and f em up with a hammer and a power drill then scattr them far and wide.

bonus: the world's most powerful rare earth magnets are inside every HD.

carefully take them out and don't get your fingers caught in between (ouch!)

[vincentmiser]

They make great bookends.
I have an ancient K-Lock drive - 80Mb or something - and it's my favourite bookend.

[orosee]

So it seems that removing data from a hard drive is not a big deal. Maybe there is some advice for my problem here. From the 1990's and early 2000's I have around 800 CD and DVD which are filled with backups of data and software, private and company correspondence, bank records, naughty stuff and whatever one could download over a period of 10 years.

Breaking a CD or DVD is very, very hard work (and actually pretty scary). Any practical advice how I could prep the media for disposal without leaving my private life wide open? For 800+ pcs the best idea so far is to burn them, but where exactly does one legally burn several kilos of plastic? Melting in my stove would probably leave my apartment uninhabitable for days, not to mention the smell left in fabric.

So, any good DIY advice here?