Re: Ways to *REALLY* erase a hard drive?

From: Al (no.spam_at_wanted.com)
Date: 02/11/05 

Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 14:20:32 GMT

In article <vVPOd.2918$lz5.94@newssvr24.news.prodigy.net>,
 "Greysky" <greyskynospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> I recently had a 80 gig Maxtor hard drive die on me. Though it was still
> under warranty (just) I decided a much better use for it was to turn it into
> a show-and-tell for the local elementary school kids. I finally managed to
> get the cover off the thing, exposing the inner platters. Someone told me a
> Torx 10 would fit those crazy screws on the cover plate - they were wrong.
> I had to drill them off. Now, I need to know a sure fire way of wiping data
> off the platters for good. The machine died before I could erase it inside
> the computer, so far I have a bunch of 'super magnets' which I dropped
> directly onto the platters and let them stay there overnight. Do you think
> this is enough? I would like to get them as deleted as I can possibly get
> them, but still be able to use the drive as a demonstration device for the
> kids. Thanks.
>
>

Years ago, when reel-to-reel tape recorders were popular, there was a
gadget called a bulk reel eraser. It completely wiped any information on
the tapes. In essence it was just a giant electromagent that ran on AC.
The fluctuating magnet field was suffiecient to totally erase the
information and not leave a magnetic bias on the magnetic medium. If you
can find one, you might be able to build one easily from a discarded
tranformer.

Yes, and most of the screws are Torx. But they are also held in with a
drop of some sort of glue to prevent their backing out. I've extracted
platters from dozens of drives which I got at our town's recycling
center. I do it mainly for the magnets. And the platters make neat
coasters for your drinks ;-)

Al

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