If you want to protect your personal information from being stolen, you’ll need to know how to properly destroy a hard drive. Many hackers are more comfortable hacking from a distance than physically destroying your drive. Hackers prefer to use specialized software, but if you’re going to destroy your hard drive yourself, you need to make sure you’re doing it the right way. Here are some methods you can try to completely destroy your hard drive.
Disassembling a hard drive
There are a few easy ways to destroy a hard drive. Disassembly may not be necessary for a single drive. Most drives are held together by torx screws and will come apart with varying degrees of difficulty. First, you’ll need to remove the top cover to get to the platters. Next, use a pocket knife, nail file, or screwdriver to score the surface of the platters.
First, you will need a good amount of patience. Disassembling a hard drive requires a certain amount of patience. You’ll need to carefully place the platters in the gaps between the magnets. Next, remove the circuit board. It’s important to carefully disassemble the hard drive as it contains vital components that control its operation. Once you’ve taken care of these, you can begin destroying it physically.
Using a degausser
If you want to dispose of your old hard drive, there are a few different methods you can use. First, there are physical methods. Physical destruction of hard drives prevents them from spinning up, which can damage the media. A single fragment of a hard drive contains 125 GB of data, or the equivalent of 312 pallets of typed paper. In addition to physical destruction, best practices for hard drive disposal recommend degaussing the hard drive before destroying it. A degausser, such as one NSA-listed device, can destroy data and create a proof-of-destruction certificate.
A degausser is the most efficient way to destroy a hard drive, since it can erase data in one-tenth of a second. Unlike wiping and shredding methods, the process of using a degausser does not require a lot of time or expertise, and can eliminate data in just a few seconds. Moreover, degaussers are expensive, and it is important to choose a trustworthy vendor when you want to dispose of your hard drive safely.
Using a microwave
You might be wondering how to use a microwave to destroy a hard drive. After all, these devices can destroy DVDs and CDs. But are they also capable of destroying hard drives? The answer to that question is not as simple as it may seem. Read on to learn more. Using a microwave to destroy a hard drive is as dangerous as it sounds. You could even cause a house fire if you attempt it, so use caution, Check out the post right here.
Generally, the hard drive’s platters and circuit board work through a magnetic field. Decommissioning a hard drive entails destroying this part, as the rest of the device is completely useless without the platters. Using muriatic acid or microwaves to destroy a hard drive might be tempting, but be sure to wear safety goggles. And never, ever use an explosive to destroy a hard drive – that’s dangerous and unreliable.
Using thermite
If you haven’t tried using thermite to destroy your hard drive, you should. The chemical reaction is extremely violent, producing temperatures of up to 2500 degrees Celsius. Thermite is a mixture of iron oxide and aluminium powder, in a proportion of 8:3. The combination is very reactive and has the capacity to produce a fire that cannot be put out by water or fire extinguisher. It can be placed directly above a hard drive.
If you don’t have any experience in data recovery, you may have heard of people discussing destroying their hard drives or wiping their data. While it may sound appealing to wipe out your information and prevent a potential data recovery, this method is largely incorrect and unreliable. You may have heard about the number of wipes that are needed to erase data from a hard drive, or even the process of grinding it down to powder. Fortunately, you can find out which method works best for your situation and which one won’t.