What to do before disposing of an old computer

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<p>Institutionalized paranoia does not make it a truth.</p>

<p>No hacker will have the ability to recover data off of the drive after even one pass. Or the desire - why waste your time and money trying that when you can get all the drives you can handle that haven’t been erased at all?</p>

<p>Maybe some gov’t spook agency like the NSA could do it, but I suspect that if the NSA is interested in your disk, you’ve got a whole other set of problems to worry about. :)</p>

42

<p>It used to feel like a waste of good resources, back when not every one had a computer and when the differences between generations were less noticeable, to destroy a perfectly good hard drive, but about 15 years ago I started doing that.</p>

<p>I used to help with computers donated to the school and was prepping one that an administrator donated. I was on the school board and he had left all sorts of personal and business stuff on there; we used to screen them to clear the documents & email history etc, to make sure the kids would not see anything they should not. He was lucky I was a true “confidential” employee as I learned stuff I really should not have known</p>

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<p>"No hacker will have the ability to recover data off of the drive after even one pass. Or the desire - why waste your time and money trying that when you can get all the drives you can handle that haven’t been erased at all?</p>

<p>Maybe some gov’t spook agency like the NSA could do it, but I suspect that if the NSA is interested in your disk, you’ve got a whole other set of problems to worry about"</p>

<p>AND: </p>

<p>“Of course, one would have to go to some real effort to attempt to read the area and it’d usually involve using different electronics to interpret the signals so a casual hacker probably wouldn’t bother with it.”</p>

<p>Yup, you guys agree :)</p>

<p>When in doubt, use a hammer :)</p>

44

<p>Here is another link supporting that one pass is sufficient.</p>

<p>[Overwriting</a> Hard Drive Data](<a href=“http://blogs.sans.org/computer-forensics/2009/01/15/overwriting-hard-drive-data/]Overwriting”>http://blogs.sans.org/computer-forensics/2009/01/15/overwriting-hard-drive-data/)</p>

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<p>I know this thread is old, but I did not want to start a new one for my dumb question. I am replacing my 10-year-old computer soon and will need to destroy the hard drive. I like the hammer method outlined above; however, I haven’t a clue as to where to find the hard drive or what it looks like. I assume a screwdriver will be involved (and maybe a few glasses of wine, LOL), but I have never seen the insides of a computer. What exactly will I be looking for?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.ixbt.com/storage/ata2005/sams300/samsung-hd300ld-iso.jpg[/url]”>http://www.ixbt.com/storage/ata2005/sams300/samsung-hd300ld-iso.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

47

<p>Data can be stolen from a HD that has been fully reformatted never mind just deleted/wiped. </p>

<p>Re: computer drives, there is no real such thing as “gone”. As long as the HD exists. </p>

<p>In order to destroy all data, no matter how old, no matter how many times it has been over-written, it is necessary to physically destroy the HD. </p>

<p>Document shredding companies that bring a truck to your office will many times have a HD shredder machine as well. For the DIY’er, a BIG hammer, used intensely, works almost as well.</p>

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<p>[Before</a> He Trades a Carrie Underwood Parody - YouTube](<a href=“Before He Trades a Carrie Underwood Parody - YouTube”>Before He Trades a Carrie Underwood Parody - YouTube)</p>

49

<p>Actually, formatting does not necessarily rewrite 0s and 1s all over the hard drive…especially in more recent versions of Windows. </p>

<p>Doing so would take far too much time and try the patience of far too many people/institutions seeking to wipe their drives. </p>

<p>As for wiping to substantially reduce the possibility of files being retrieved to the point of practical impracticability…there are many utilities to do so. The one’s I’m most familiar with, however, are some utility I used to use in Unix and something in Mac’s disk utility to do one or multiple pass wipes. </p>

<p>Personally, unless one was using that hard drive for highly top secret work on the levels of law cases, government, or corporate files…using the wiping utility is fine. No need to hammer the drive necessarily. </p>

<p>Also, if the hard drive is still good, one can get a cheap enclosure and use the old hard drive as a portable USB backup drive. :)</p>

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<p>We have a really powerful electromagnet at the office which is used to bulk-erase hard drives.</p>

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</p>

<p>Then everyone’s question is : WHY? And what do you have to hide? </p>

<p>And what is your answer?!</p>

<p>That is how the modern world works. Am I right?</p>

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<p>I once had the medical records of an entire HMO in my secure storage to diagnose a technical problem. That is just one example.</p>