Ditching old PC -removal of parts which may contain personal data -advice sought

[NickW]

Hi

I want to dispose of an old and knackered PC. I have removed the hard drive. Are there any other parts that would contain personal data and would be wise to remove?

Regards

Nick

[Richard Owen]

No.

[johnrae]

Remember to physically destroy the hard disk drive (large hammer) before you dispose of it.  Jack

[Mike N.]

Remember to physically destroy the hard disk drive (large hammer) before you dispose of it.  Jack

I once tried the oft quoted 'bang a six inch nail through it'. It bent the nail and took an awful lot of effort before it looked in any way 'destroyed', I was impressed with just how tough the HD was!

Mike

[NickW]

Thanks Guys

Nick

[welshboy]

Would a strong magnet destroy the data ?

[dhaslam]

Heavy hammer would be preferable.

[damnager]

Hi Nick,
          what you call a strong magnet is a "degausser" for hard disks this is expensive (much cheaper for tape technology).

I presume that this was a single disk and not part of a raid set (multiple disks all working together) if so go to your local hardware store and buy a cheap set of security sockets to match that of the screws in your disk, remove the outer plates and scratch the surface of the platter (the brown rusty looking bit), it will then take a real expert (ex is a has been, spurt is a drip under pressure  ) to recover your data.

Your other option is to acquire a data eraser program from the net, there are many and some will even be to the strength that the military require (I erased a 20gb disk with full strength for fun and it took 2 days). It really depends on how paranoid you want to get (encase it in concrete and drop it in the deepest part of the ocean I would still not give you a written guarantee).

Or you could just start collecting disks in you attic and wait until the world has gone back into the dark ages and problem solved 

Keith

[wyleu]

The intensity of magnetic field required to erase a disk is pretty damn concentrated, that's what the read/write head is all about. We've stuck 2 inch video tape throu' professional degaussing machines and still been able to watch them afterwards albeit with a fair bit of noise. The way the data is laid out on the disk decides how much can be read and that varies from operating system to operating system. If you can force the disk surface to undergo some form of phase transition then the odds of any magnetic structure surviving is pretty limited so perhaps knock a whole in the case and jam a blow torch against it for some considerable time might be the easiest way of achieving the result you require.

but you do have to ask yourself is one copy of the Paris Hilton video really that embarrassing?

[NickW]

Im not worried about my porn collection - transferred that over ages ago

No - it was the risk of personal data - bank details, navitron passwords - that sort of stuff

Im thinking about buying a 40 inch frensel lens - I could fry the disk with the power of the sun!

[RichardKB]

Just belt it with a hammer, once anyone see's the state it's in unless they know it is from the bank of England or worse they won't bother trying to get the data off it.

Rich

[wyleu]

I wonder how resilient memory sticks are in this regard?

[Ivan]

Of course if you chuck out a hard drive that's been physically abused, it does tend to point to something valuable being contained therein.

Why not take a less destructive approach - check out Ben's www.gotwind.org site, and make some pico-wind turbines with it.