Hard Drive Destruction: The Five Methods You Need To Know

 Hard drive destruction doesn't have to be a time consuming and difficult process. In fact, it doesn't even have to involve a hammer and a drill. There are several simple methods you can use to safely dispose of your old hard drives, but which one is the best? We've got some answers.

1. How to destroy a hard drive without a drill

So, how do you destroy a hard drive if you don’t have a drill? As it turns out, a hammer is all you need. You can use a hammer to smash it, you can use a hammer to drill through it, you can use a hammer to destroy it.If you have any interest in hard drive destruction, it might be best to first look into the three ways above before you totally blow up your old drive.

2. How to destroy a hard drive with a drill

In the event that you need to destroy a hard drive because it has sensitive information on it that you can’t risk falling into the wrong hands, you can destroy the hard drive with a drill. If you drill a hole into the center of the hard drive, you’ll be able to destroy everything on it and make it completely unrecoverable.

If the data is still on the disk when you destroy the hard drive with a drill, you will be able to salvage the data on the disk by copying it over. This requires certain programs to run over the disk while it’s being duplicated, which is beyond the scope of this article. However, you can read up on the process on several other websites, such as Lifehacker (you will need Jeeves installed to run these commands as Computer.)

 If 128 gigabytes or more worth of data on the disk is too sensitive to be destroyed in this manner, there are various methods of formatting the disk (using a program like Coaxiom Impactor Extreme Format) that will allow you to delete it afterward. However, if you maintain your hard drive, you will overwrite data which you shouldn’t have on the hard disk in the process. So be sure to back up your data properly and just overwrite your data where you don't need to overwrite it.

 No matter which of the previous methods you go through, the drive will be completely unrecoverable. The only questions left, then, is, what should you do with the old drive? 

. Create a New Hard Drive

If your old hard drive can no longer be used, you'll need a new one. Using all the correct procedures to determine whether the disk contains any sensitive data, how much data is on it, and what it was formatted for will now allow you to create a new hard drive. Have the data on the old drive wiped, of course, because data on a hard drive can be a training tool if you don't destroy the information on it.

3. The easiest way to destroy a hard drive

If you're trying to destroy a hard drive, the easiest way is to drop it in a bucket of water. The platters in hard drives are coated with a thin layer of rust-proof paint to prevent rusting. The water will dissolve the paint and quickly rust the platters.

Another option is to dump the hard drive in a common recycling bin or waste-to-energy incinerator. Although not for everyone, this method does eliminate much of the risk of damaging the drive through direct contact with other objects in the recycling (if any parts of the hard drive get touched). 

 But destruction isn't the only way to safely dispose of your hard drive. You can also throw it in the garbage, as well as recycling it into more valuable pieces. Michael Whitaker, an executive for Hard Drive Technologies, explains that, "Destruction is probably not the best route because recycling means that all those old hard drives come back with valuable data stored on them and can be resold instead of harming the environment. However, if you can't dispose of a hard drive, you can also dispose of some of that data and/or technology by recycling it." 

 If you're looking to recycle your hard drive, the best option is to use a standard parts dump, which involves placing the damaged hard drive in a bin where it can easily be accessed and removed later. 

 Hard Drive Guys estimates that, if all your hard drives are formatted NTFS (for files without, like Excel files), you can expect to spend around $4 on a standard parts dump. This includes creating an empty bin, half-assing it so you don't upset anyone by doing so, and throwing in your drives. Note that you'll need a hard disk duplicator to turn your old drives into new ones, but once you've taken your old dressed drives and put them into the bin, you're good to go. 

To burn your old hard drives to the ground, you'll need to get a reusable arc welder, a tool you can reserve online here.

4. How to destroy a hard drive with the least effort involved

1. Shred it. A cross-cut shredder will take your hard drive, your laptop, and your desk into hundreds of tiny pieces that would take years to put back together.(It looks painstakingly cool from the curb, anyway.) You'll need a very high level of shredding skill, but I promise this process isn't terribly scary. Keep your personality in mind; should you be too enthusiastic in doing this yourself, you may get a bit of dust all over your stockpile of obsolete hard drives, but this is a great tool for anyone who owns important files.

 2. Fire it up. Anabolic burning is a method of self-deification wherein you burn the old hard drive to the point of complete combustion. This process happens at a ridiculous heat, blasting the old drive with so many megawatts of energy the hard drive literally melts like concrete. I have no idea how Bruce Campbell felt about this, but he proudly displayed his A-Team-me hard drive during the Apollo 13 mission.

 3. Burn it up. Another crude method of A-Bombing your hard drive is by adding acid to the drive and waiting for it to jump. If you're really foolish, you can even add it to a small, open flame and let the acid singe the bits and burn them off. The stars sang out for James Bond when he added acid to a fire and made it sing; we hope your drive doesn't get singed.

 4. Blow it out. While A-Bombing your hard drives is entertaining, it isn't very practical, so don't think getting rid of your old drives is the answer to your files being erased. When the drive sees a thick coat of paint (that matches the color of your drive's casing), it decides it wants to be like the Bond girls and explodes. This actually works to some extent, as you can blow out your drives via a blowtorch.

5. The best way to destroy your hard drives, if you want to be thorough about it

The best way to destroy your hard drives is to take a hammer to them, but if you want to be thorough about it you can remove the platters and then smash the casing. This way, you can be sure that there’s nothing on your hard drives that anyone can recover.

You may dismiss these methods if you think you know exactly which hard drive to remove. After all, how hard was it to purposefully smash one up? You can be your own bit of foresight and destroy your old hard drives by using these methods.

Before you do anything, you need to make sure you have enough special tools. We won’t go into too much detail as never has been the best source of information, but just suffice to say it is essential you have an angle-convex drill, which is a bit of a fancy word for a vise-grip. Once you’ve got this item, proceed with the rest of the tasks whilst wearing a mask, holding the vise-grip and slowly working your way through the various hard drive destruction techniques. Resist the temptation to speed up as this will just increase your chances of damaging the platters and unimportant data on them.

 If you are using a bit of good, old-fashioned common sense, simply remove the drive and smash it up. It’s as simple as that.

 Alternatively, you can have someone else destroy the drive with a sledgehammer or virtually any other heavy duty commodity. This method is slightly more dangerous as the hammer smash brings the platter closer together making it more likely that someone will get held up.

For those of you using the methods above, we'd love to know how you chose to destroy your drive. Happy to show off some of the gadgets and equipment I've used? Just let me know in the comments!

 Ha! Now that I've confused you so nicely, I'm going to refrain from any further dropping of knowledge and help you out with what you need instead.