Portable Hard Drive Disposal

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I have an Iomega portable hard drive which I need to dispose of.

It was proving intermittently problematical, so I replaced it with a new one.

I have tried to format it (to wipe all data)without success; I keep getting error messages. I am reluctant to dispose of it with sensitive data still on it, so would be grateful for any advice.

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Sledge hammer, enjoy.

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Trev, you randomly stated : would be grateful for any advice.

I have a column drill and just drill a hole in it. The sledge hammer is good too. But I open it up and hit the medium proper. Jean.

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When we can’t use Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) due to physical damage we use a long, narrow cold chisel. Cheap, fast and very effective. Make sure you wear safety gloves and goggles.

Hope this helps…

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Thanks for the suggestions so far, but I was hoping to erase all the data and take it somewhere for disposal.

I have no access to tools for physical destruction of the drive.

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Put it on the road and drive over it several times, preferably with a small rock on the top of the drive.
We can’t advise you where to take it for disposal as we don’t know what country you are in.

cheers, Paul

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Download and run Killdisk on it and don’t lose any sleep over it.
http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

Jerry

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Oh Oh me too. Get a set of torx wrenches and some sand paper, and you get to play with those nice magnets!!!

They do still have those magnets don’t they. Someone tell me they do…

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Sure magnets are still in the spinning ones at least, for me it’s forty paces with a pistol at dawn. Ceramic platters are the best because they shatter into hundreds of fragments.

If you have a decent arm you do have the physical tools; three or four high speed impacts, with either platter side flat on a small slightly raised hard object will do the trick unless there’s a government agency on your heels.

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Rare Earth Magnets work well. Small but very powerful !!!

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in the 60s the govt used to
physically mangle the drives after bulk erasing 3 or more times
maybe did other things they didnt tell me about

drilling through will leave some data readable

smashing with a sledgehammer is much better but not perfect

remove the platters and sand the surfaces until nothing is left on them is perfect

simplest might be to put it in a trash can and add some gasoline and let it burn

soak it with motor oil first and then wrapping it up in a big bag with all the dog poop you can find in your neighborhood and putting it out in the trash to be buried in a landfill should be good enough for most people.

if kgb or nsa wanted your data they already got it. so forget about the hard disk spy nonsense.

I have an Iomega portable hard drive which I need to dispose of.

It was proving intermittently problematical, so I replaced it with a new one.

I have tried to format it (to wipe all data)without success; I keep getting error messages. I am reluctant to dispose of it with sensitive data still on it, so would be grateful for any advice.

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