Destroying A Hard Drive Permanently

[Megalith]

Scenario: You are tasked with destroying an array of hard drives and have any tool or weapon at your disposal. What do you choose?

Drilling holes in the platter, on the other hand, generates heat that can easily cause universal damage. “You're potentially distorting the platter itself. You're doing things that might cause all of the rest of the platter to change slightly,” Budman says. “And it doesn't need to change a lot in order for the data to be completely invalid.”

 

[KarsusTG]

Degausser?

 

[MavericK]

For covering tracks, though, Chozick cautions that a hard drive full of gibberish is still a big red flag. “For litigation, if your drive is being called in question and it's been zeroed out, obviously we know that there's been some spoliation of data. And we can tell that to a jury, and they don't like it so much.” he says.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess.

 

[wra18th]

Ronnie Barrett 50 cal sniper rifle?

 

[Phoenix333]

Torching the platter until it's molten slag is quite effective. It works equally well for SSD's too.

 

[Varsis]

the 100lb magnet attached to the side of my desk?

 

[travanx]

Just saw a German movie called Who am I and it appeared they used something like acid to dissolve the hard drive to cover their tracks.

What if you just took the HD apart and threw pieces into different dumpsters? Or can a loose platter still have info pulled from it?

 

[westrock2000]

For covering tracks, though, Chozick cautions that a hard drive full of gibberish is still a big red flag. “For litigation, if your drive is being called in question and it's been zeroed out, obviously we know that there's been some spoliation of data. And we can tell that to a jury, and they don't like it so much.” he says.

Good to know. So first do one pass of zero's, which no one has proven can be decrypted. Then apply an image of some hard drive with seemingly legitimate stuff on it. That way you also don't have to explain why this hard drive has physical holes in it.

 

[sfsuphysics]

2 parts aluminum powder + 1 part iron oxide powder + 1 magnesium wick = bye bye hard drive, not even an episode of CSI could recover that data.

 

[westrock2000]

Just saw a German movie called Who am I and it appeared they used something like acid to dissolve the hard drive to cover their tracks.

What if you just took the HD apart and threw pieces into different dumpsters? Or can a loose platter still have info pulled from it?

I would assume so since HDD's are big on keeping data as sequential as possible.

Throw platters down a drain in any random neighborhood.

Or better yet, just drop them out the car window on a road, they will get scratch to all hell.

 

[Spidey329]

2 parts aluminum powder + 1 part iron oxide powder + 1 magnesium wick = bye bye hard drive, not even an episode of CSI could recover that data.

Don't underestimate the super lab detectives of CSI. I'm sure they could find a way to reconstruct the data. Know how I know? Because the show was written by writers who don't do research.


I always laughed at the difference between CSI's 3d ultra fast unrealistic tools and a show like Dexter which appeared to run Windows98 based Forensic tools that took forever. The latter being the more realistic.

 

[Lunas]

Just saw a German movie called Who am I and it appeared they used something like acid to dissolve the hard drive to cover their tracks.

What if you just took the HD apart and threw pieces into different dumpsters? Or can a loose platter still have info pulled from it?

you would be surprised they place the platter in a scanning electron microscope and from that they can read each separate bit and the ghost of what was down below that that is why random write and 0's is done in multiple passes...

as for how i would destroy a drive permanently

I am torn between a vat of nitric acid tossing the platters in and 2 tons of thermite or steel foundry...
nitric acid there would at best be a pitted aluminum disc with no magnetic coating to read

thermite might leave survivors

industrial shredder into a foundry toss the whole drive in it gets cut into tiny chunks then melted into ingots and slag

 

[Jagger100]

Drill a small hole over the platters, fill with salt water and glue, plug hole with screw and try to drive into the platters and through them or warp them.

 

[86 5.0L]

Works for a t1000

 

[Lunas]

 

[westrock2000]

you would be surprised they place the platter in a scanning electron microscope and from that they can read each separate bit and the ghost of what was down below that that is why random write and 0's is done in multiple passes...

Do you have any links of this actually being done. Outside of "secret government abilities" I have never seen anyone successfully recover complete data from a hard drive that ONLY had 1 pass of zero's. There have been many contests over the years to do this. I have never seen one challenged.

If you have actual evidence of this being done, I will put my foot in my mouth and play toe whistle while singing your name high upon the mountain

 

[Lunas]

Do you have any links of this actually being done. Outside of "secret government abilities" I have never seen anyone successfully recover complete data from a hard drive that ONLY had 1 pass of zero's. There have been many contests over the years to do this. I have never seen one challenged.

If you have actual evidence of this being done, I will put my foot in my mouth and play toe whistle while singing your name high upon the mountain

humm just looked into it and yes it was possible but is not possible anymore due to the density of the platters it just looks like noise now...

 

[Vaulter98c]

One of my tours overseas was actually the next to last unit to leave Iraq, we should have had the honor but they had more stars then our general... Anyways lol

Our process for about 4000+ HDDs was to do a 1-3 pass wipe on the system depending on its clearance, then degause them,then smash them or whatever we could to expose/damage the platters, then collect the parts wholesale and send em through a grinder/incinerator depending on clearance. It was tracked the whole way through by serial number on the drive. It was the most fucked up way over executed plan I've done, but I don't have the rank to fight it so just suck it up and do it. On another tour I was the comsec guy for my camp and one of the 3 hubs to the whole backbone of Afghanistan, when that tour was done I just passed the keys on and signed them away. Destroying tons of shit only falls to the last guy in the line lol

 

[Lunas]

One of my tours overseas was actually the next to last unit to leave Iraq, we should have had the honor but they had more stars then our general... Anyways lol

Our process for about 4000+ HDDs was to do a 1-3 pass wipe on the system depending on its clearance, then degause them,then smash them or whatever we could to expose/damage the platters, then collect the parts wholesale and send em through a grinder/incinerator depending on clearance. It was tracked the whole way through by serial number on the drive. It was the most fucked up way over executed plan I've done, but I don't have the rank to fight it so just suck it up and do it. On another tour I was the comsec guy for my camp and one of the 3 hubs to the whole backbone of Afghanistan, when that tour was done I just passed the keys on and signed them away. Destroying tons of shit only falls to the last guy in the line lol

they could have just got a big arc furnace and melted them all into liquid then poured the ingots and sent the ingots home...

 

[GaryJohnson]

Do you have any links of this actually being done. Outside of "secret government abilities" I have never seen anyone successfully recover complete data from a hard drive that ONLY had 1 pass of zero's. There have been many contests over the years to do this. I have never seen one challenged.

If you have actual evidence of this being done, I will put my foot in my mouth and play toe whistle while singing your name high upon the mountain

In the general case it's not possible.

But, a scenario/question occurs to me is: does zero fill overwrite sectors that were previously marked bad by SMART? If it doesn't, then there are tools out there that might be able to read from the bad sectors even though the rest of the drive has been zero'd.

It might also be possible in the very specific case that the drive was previously zero'd a whole bunch, then written to once, then zero'd just once again.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

1 8lb Sledge + 1 Solid hit = Dead HDD that no one on the planet is recovering. It's cheap, it's easy and super effective.

 

[Scythe]

Put a few bullets through it. A couple of .45's would render it useless.

 

[alamox]

take out the disk and microwave them, like the tvshow robot

 

[robothunter]

Just buy a Seagate drive. Whatever data you put on it will be gone forever.

 

[KarsusTG]

Just buy a Seagate drive. Whatever data you put on it will be gone forever.

Quoted for truth.

 

[cyclone3d]

Just buy a Seagate drive. Whatever data you put on it will be gone forever.

HAHA, ain't that the truth.

As for destroying.. simply disassembling is probably enough. The platters can be used to make some pretty trippy wind chimes.

You could also take the top cover off, put some sand in there, close it back up and the hook it back up so it spins up and destroys the platters.

I just do a 3-pass wipe with CCleaner.

 

[RagingSamster]

Well, if it's an encrypted drive just reload OS and re-encrypt, otherwise the "Will it Blend" technique is good.

 

[swatbat]

Put a few bullets through it. A couple of .45's would render it useless.

The correct tool for the trade if you want to use 45acp

We generally get a big box of drives and use them for target practice. That or drill them if we don't care to go shooting.

 

[MRAB54]

DBAN is the easiest. But I've seen plenty that drill holes through them - good enough for most everyone.

 

[nutzo]

In the general case it's not possible.

But, a scenario/question occurs to me is: does zero fill overwrite sectors that were previously marked bad by SMART? If it doesn't, then there are tools out there that might be able to read from the bad sectors even though the rest of the drive has been zero'd.

That raises a good point. There will likely be some bad bits on the bad sector, but if you have the ability to force the drive to read the bad sectors, it likely you could recover some of the data even if the rest of the drive has been zero'd out. (the bad sectors are not normally seen by the drive so wiping the drive will not destroy them)

I just don't see the point of doing anything more than a wipe of the drive.
Anyone who would have the ability to recover data from a drive that has been wiped, likely has the ability to break into your systems and steal the live data, so why would they bother with a broken drive?

Only reason I see to physically destroy the media is if the drive is defective to the point that you can't run a wipe to destroy the data.

 

[Kueller]

For covering tracks, though, Chozick cautions that a hard drive full of gibberish is still a big red flag. “For litigation, if your drive is being called in question and it's been zeroed out, obviously we know that there's been some spoliation of data. And we can tell that to a jury, and they don't like it so much.” he says.

So...Wipe it and then download as many porn torrents as it takes to fill it up again?

I mean, no one might believe you have a drive full of gibberish, but everyone would believe a drive full of porn.

 

[Stiletto]

Scenario: You are tasked with destroying an array of hard drives and have any tool or weapon at your disposal. What do you choose?

 

[Cerulean]

Launch hard drives into the sun. Permanent unrecoverable recycling in action!

 

[Raven88]

Launch hard drives into the sun. Permanent unrecoverable recycling in action!

I like your style. And hey if the rocket blows up on the way to the sun I doubt you will find all the pieces.

 

[Twisted Kidney]

If you need to hide serious criminal activity, plasma furnace. If you just want to secure your information against fraud, a drill will do.

As a rule, criminal organisations are smart enough to avoid spending millions of their dollars to steal thousands of your dollars.

 

[Quix]

I just use a hammer, it's handy and it always works.

 

[Darunion]

This worked fine enough for me. It may or may not have been more an emotional decision than a logical one at the time.

 

[ManofGod]

Star Trek phaser set on kill? Oh wait, you mean real things.

 

[cocheese256]

I decommission systems at work. I take all the hdd out and use them for target practice.
Gets the job done, fun, and very satisfying.

 

[Phoenix333]

The correct tool for the trade if you want to use 45acp

We generally get a big box of drives and use them for target practice. That or drill them if we don't care to go shooting.

That thing qualifies as an SBR. If that's really yours and not just a photo plucked off the 'net then I hope you have a permit for it.