Large scale drive destruction

grasshoppa

grasshoppa

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jun 18, 2017
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What's everyone's favorite cost effective method for drive destruction? I have hundreds of drives that have secured data on them that I need to wipe/destroy. Got a quote from a shredding company for 5 bucks a drive...which I'm not doing.

I don't need certified destruction, I just need to damage the drives enough to be confident that they won't be recoverable ( absent extraordinary means ). I was thinking a big tub and lots of an acid...but I really have no idea. Which is why I'm here.

So...ideas?
 
I'd say a good set of drill bits, your drill, and just go to town. Super easy and cheap.
 
I’m not even a gun guy, but that seems like a perfect candidate for a shooting gallery. Haha

I think a drill and a hand full of bits would be ok, albeit time consuming and possibly not as cheap as it seems. You’re probably going to dull them out after a a few drives depending on how many holes you want to drill. One through the pcb and disks should keep 99.9% of the world from ever seeing data from them again.
 
This is what I use for drive destruction.

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ryan_975 said:
dban zero wipe. Anybody that can get your "secured" data from that already had it.
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Too time consuming, I have over 200 drives that I need to dispose of. Same with the drill bits; if there's a hardware solution I'd prefer to just get a sledge hammer and got to town.

I really like the shooting idea, but I'm in CA and that kind of thing is frowned on...and this is for a business who's worried about liability. Me, personally, I'd love to expense an order of tannerite...but that's not happening.

That's why I was thinking of a tub and some caustic chemical and just leave them to soak...but i really don't know what chemical would work here.
 
I could actually shred them with the above gun, but CA is too far away. If you want to drive to the DFW area, I'd be more than happy to take care of those drives.
 
grasshoppa said:
Too time consuming, I have over 200 drives that I need to dispose of. Same with the drill bits; if there's a hardware solution I'd prefer to just get a sledge hammer and got to town.

I really like the shooting idea, but I'm in CA and that kind of thing is frowned on...and this is for a business who's worried about liability. Me, personally, I'd love to expense an order of tannerite...but that's not happening.

That's why I was thinking of a tub and some caustic chemical and just leave them to soak...but i really don't know what chemical would work here.
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Then what do you do with the tub full of caustic chemicals when you are done, as well as whatever is left of the drives? How do you confirm it actually burned the plates inside the drive?... If the company is concerned about liability, then they should pay a certified company to take care of it. If you do it, I'm pretty sure that liability ends up on you if there is any issues in the future. I'd get a few other quotes from different companies, and show them what their options are and let them decide.
 
I would worry about chemicals actually penetrating the drive casings and doing significant enough platter damage.
 
We have a firm that takes our drives and gives us a certificate back that they were wiped according to DOD standards, each drive SN is marked on the certificate.

200 drives? Id either sledgehammer the edge of each one, or pay a junkyard to line them up and hit each one with the torch
 
pendragon1 said:
rent a nail gun and buy some nails.
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This is cheaper than I thought, I might end up doing it. OR...the sledge hammer idea. One of the owners was squeemish about the sledge hammer idea, but was all about the nailgun until I pointed out the nail gun is more dangerous ( but, admittedly, far more fun ).

It's looking like I'll be getting my way with the sledge hammer idea ( which was what I originally wanted to go with anyway ).
 
Are you in an industry which has requirements for media destruction? If not, find a local scrap or junk yard with a shredder, bring them over and have them scrap them while you wait.
 
mwroobel said:
Are you in an industry which has requirements for media destruction? If not, find a local scrap or junk yard with a shredder, bring them over and have them scrap them while you wait.
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Oh, I like this suggestion too. Thank you.
 
grasshoppa said:
Oh, I like this suggestion too. Thank you.
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I've done this a few times before with a local yard. We palletize 1,000 or so drives and bring them over. They drive the forklift over to the shredder, cut the shrinkwrap and throw it all in pallet and all. We videotaped the whole process which legal requested, and we saved about $9,000 vs shipping them to an industry recycler. If your data is covered by HIPPA, GSA, FCRA or NIST 800-88 then you will have to go to an approved vendor, and the paperwork can be a bitch
 
Thatguybil said:
We use an AMS 500HD.
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We looked at that and the 1000, but since we were paying $1 per drive and didn’t have to deal with any e-waste the $15k for the 500HD plus disposal costs didn’t make it worth it.
 
If all else fails, send them to me :D I'm make sure the data is destroyed to whatever spec you desire and record it being done. Then put the drives to good use helping people out. I work from home and have all the time in the world to babysit a spare computer to wipe drives.
 
Are you in the Bay area? If so, you actuallly do have some fun gun options. Call ahead to your ranges, as some will let you get creative wit your targets. If that seems too much, I was going to suggest a slingshot, renting a wood chipper, and making a game outta it.
 
Back in the day you could buy degaussing coils for fixing artifacts on CRT TVs. These were good to wipe media as well except that on hard drives it also erases all the tracking information making them impossible to even use again unless you can do a low level format, which now seems like can't be done anymore.

Don't know how much time each one would need to be exposed to a coil, but I think that would also depend on the strength of the coil. An heavy duty industrial magnetic field would probably do very well...hmmm...like an MRI machine...talk to a local MRI place after some research?

Then you can put the dead drives on ebay for parts or re-low-level formatting. It's a waste to see usable electronics have to go through the whole return to raw materials process before being reused.
 
SamirD said:
Back in the day you could buy degaussing coils for fixing artifacts on CRT TVs. These were good to wipe media as well except that on hard drives it also erases all the tracking information making them impossible to even use again unless you can do a low level format, which now seems like can't be done anymore.

Don't know how much time each one would need to be exposed to a coil, but I think that would also depend on the strength of the coil. An heavy duty industrial magnetic field would probably do very well...hmmm...like an MRI machine...talk to a local MRI place after some research?

Then you can put the dead drives on ebay for parts or re-low-level formatting. It's a waste to see usable electronics have to go through the whole return to raw materials process before being reused.
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MRI machines don't like metal around them. Take them to a car crusher that has a giant electromagnet for moving cars around.
 
Interesting thread.
Since I'm not allowed to posses or discharge firearms, I throw them in my vice and grab a cold steel chisel and wack em' with a 28oz Estwing. Easy as cracking open an egg.
I pull the magnets out and give them to my clients' kids. Or I tie a piece of twine around the magnets and make my kids take laps around the yard and driveway to pick up nails (when they piss me off, takes a lot longer than a speaker magnet). After that, I give the platters and heads a good wack to finish them off.

I do this to dead drives. Now If I was given 200 "good" drives to "wipe and dispose" of, I would boot and nuke 'em with zeros, than make some money off of them. Or take the honest John route and donate them to the Habitat for Humanity after you wiped them, for a healthy tax write off.
 
Burn barrel with grate to hold drives above fire. If you can get it hot enough, the drives will melt. If you are lucky, a few might have magnesium parts and add to the fun. Fair warning, probably violates a few clean air ordinances.
 
Denpepe said:
Use some thermite

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Awesome. The only con I see with that method is being red flagged by the FBI, CIA, NSA and DoHS after purchasing the thermite. Sort of like buying a copy of Catcher in the Rye. Do you need some sort of special license?
 
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