I have had a box of HDD's sat under my desk in my office - slowly filling up as I scrap PC's and remove the disks first. It is my policy to destroy our used HDD's - we have fairly sensitive information and simply do not have the time to secure wipe every disk that comes through my office. Today was the day to empty the box! Smashing station prepared for action - lump hammer would have been handy!! Have already smashed a load by now but then thought to get some photo's so you can all share my joy Few laptop drives die first: - Only a few blows needed before the skin is pierced and the platter destroyed: - Onto the big boys: - Tough to break up these Hitachi's! Most satisfying of the lot - a Samsung: - Without a doubt the hardest drive of all was the Hitachi and this takes the overall prize!! Multiple blows could only achieve this: - However the platters were destroyed by this stage!! Final Result - nearly 80 disks smashed, sore hands, sore arms but a strange glow of satisfaction and nearly 4 cubic feet of real estate saved in my office - worth every minute Best day I've had at work for a while, smash on!!
Now that would be a laugh seeing someone try!!! I believe Matt has some winging their way to him as a result of that thread so he's sorted. Have some more drives in the store room to dispose of so if he still needs some I can provide
I remember a few years ago a co-worker and myself set about a pile of hard disks armed with hammers and electric drills. Loads of fun. We now have a degausser which is somewhat less fun.
The last lot I did a few years ago consisted of me stripping the drives out of the machines, passing them to my MD who was smashing them up dressed in a boiler suit. Was a very surreal day! He wanted to help with these but I was having too much fun!
The tight git part of my psyche thinks there's quite a bit of cash going to waste there.... Does look fun though... Oh, the complexity of life!
They are mostly 80GB's and less - a few 20GB's believe it or not! Thats how long some of them have sat in that box for. I have introduced a policy whereby all of our old hardware now gets passed on to an IT for Africa charity project - means a little extra work for me (very) secure wiping and re-installing the OS but all for a good cause. They even take the old monitors - had 12 CRT's stacked up and they came and took the lot - saving me a load of hassle and disposal costs. Got to try and do your bit I guess.
Lol, I see, sometimes the effort isn't worth the return money wise. Nice work. I think we take them so much for granted now we don't realise how useful and appreciated they could be to others.
Indeed - our old P4 2.8's will be used for up to 5 years they reckon out there. So easy to break them up and chuck them not realising what good you could be doing for just a little effort. Our Company actively supports local charities so they don't mind me setting aside time to sort this out for them which is a nice touch.
This was a 10k sas 146GB drive which was minding its own until a little red light didn't stop flashing: It was out of warranty and this was about two-thirds through the destruction. I also took out another hdd which I hit once and completely shattered the platters inside. It was like shaking a box of rice krispies.
if you want some more fun, have the drive spun up while you smash it with a rubber mallet, it should shatter the platters completely
And I present to thee; the correct way to dispose of hard drives! up next, I've got a few graphics cards to strip for the next batch of coasters
You have to watch out for flying shards of twisted HD platter, but that would be so much fun! Or even better, find 10 completely different ways of destroying HDs! The obvious one is smash it, but as you mentioned, 'spinning' smashing. Or fire. See if the HD explodes under heat. Microwaves! Heavy vehicles! I saw a video once that used a vacuum to spin a CD in a CD spindle case. Would be fun to try the same thing with a spinning HD! Desk fan!
Bloody hell you lot don't miss a trick eh?!? It is indeed from a Dell r610 1u server - cheap as chips to act as an offsite backup server at our DC. I am amazed you could smell that from those pics
no problem with shards if the drive isn't opened up [NOTE: I take no responsibility for any damage/jail time/personal injury caused by my suggestions] a large enough electromagnet [should] wipe the drive thermite is always fun mount the platters on a router and push them off, sending them rolling quickly into a wall (had a video of this at one point... couldn't find it) a platter could probably fit into a clay pidgeon launcher too
