Re: Ways to *REALLY* erase a hard drive?
From: Roger Hamlett (rogerspamignored_at_ttelmah.demon.co.uk)
Date: 02/11/05
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Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 14:35:16 GMT
"Al" <no.spam@wanted.com> wrote in message
news:no.spam-9260BB.09202911022005@news.verizon.net...
> 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 ;-)
Beware though, that the design of digital tapes, can make them much harder
to erase, than the old audio tapes. I had an eraser of the type you are
referring to. Had happily erased any number of audio tapes, then tried a
DAT tape. It was amazingly resistant to this type of erasure (after ten
minutes, it eventually became unreadable). The same is almost certainly
true of the data on a hard disk.
Best Wishes
- Next message: bill.sloman_at_ieee.org: "Re: Low pass filter, cut off 500 Hz, short response time..."
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