Crushing hard disks?

[zag]

Does anyone physically destroy had disks here?

 

After our SSD revolution I have around 500 hard disks, traditionally I have used DBAN but it takes far too long to wipe them.

 

I'm looking for a physical machine that would take a few seconds and render the disk scrap metal, any ideas?

 

Something like the machines google have

 

Edited September 29, 2014 by zag

[Abaddon]

Our IT recycler turns them into ball bearings, and certifies that. When I looked at this a few years ago, it was cheaper than buying a destruction machine.

[mats]

Sledgehammer.

[fairm010]

When I have one or two I have some nice stress relief with a sledge hammer!

[zag]

Our IT recycler turns them into ball bearings, and certifies that. When I looked at this a few years ago, it was cheaper than buying a destruction machine.

 

Yeh i've been quoted £1 a disk to destroy them.

 

But since we have over 500 disks, it may be worth buying a machine. I have no use for the disks afterwards either so wiping them is not what I want.

[zag]

Found this one which looks nice but at £2,000 its a bit expensive

 

 

Better than a data protection fine I guess though

[Norphy]

You're spending £2k so you don't have to spend £500?

[Arthur]

I've been quoted £1 a disk to destroy them.

Couldn't you use an IT recycler that doesn't charge to destroy disks like Conserve-IT?

[localzuk]

Surely you won't have a need for such a machine now that you've switched to SSD? ie. once you've got rid of this lot, and any other remainders, that'll be it? So, £1 a disk works out more cost effective than buying a machine.

[Crumpet]

That HD punch looks like a torture device to HDD's!

 

Can you do the same with a Drill in your Technology department?

[synaesthesia]

One simple hammer is more than sufficient to impact the drive hard enough to smash the platters to smithereens.

Question if you actually need to do this - if they served thin clients or mandatory profiles, is there any data likely to ever cause an issue that a dban won't sort? Then sell on eBay, policies permitting, and put it towards your SSDs

[Norphy]

OP said that DBAN takes too long. For 500 disks, I could believe it.

 

The rest of your post I agree with though. What did these disks hold that was so important?

[pcstru]

Does ADT not have a pillar drill? Probably an hour or two's work to put a quick hole in the casing.

[Gurtlush]

We drill 2 holes through them in DT with 2 people we can drill 8 a minute. They then sit in an internal courtyard until they go mouldy and then given to the scrap man who gives us a certificate. Cheapest way i could find to do it.

[LosOjos]

Would be lovely to have a specialist machine of course but if £1 a disk is too expensive then buying a machine makes no sense. You can buy a hammer for £5, works out at £0.01 per disk and will take you an hour at most.

 

Once the platter is smashed there's no recovering data, no matter how fancy a gadget you might have used to smash it!

[elsiegee40]

I find they are most efficiently and cheaply destroyed by a teenage boy. Given the right equipment, he takes them apart and makes sure the drive is completely unreadable. If you don't own a teenage boy, are there any at your school or is there the son of a colleague that would enjoy getting to the magnets?

 

PS Teenage girls may well take an interest too. I would have done. My daughter leaves it to her brother.

[LosOjos]

I find they are most efficiently and cheaply destroyed by a teenage boy. Given the right equipment, he takes them apart and makes sure the drive is completely unreadable. If you don't own a teenage boy, are there any at your school or is there the son of a colleague that would enjoy getting to the magnets?

 

PS Teenage girls may well take an interest too. I would have done. My daughter leaves it to her brother.

 

Putting the health & safety hat on for a moment

 

Make sure you (or any kids you get helping) are wearing goggles and gloves when you do this, those platters are like glass when broken and tend to explode in to thousands of tiny shards!

[3s-gtech]

Remember that it's the 2.5" HDDs that tend to have glass platters (though not the server drives in that size) so are easy to destroy. For 3.5" HDDs, it takes a fair bit of hammering to destroy the platters sufficiently in many cases.

[pcstru]

Putting the health & safety hat on for a moment

Heh! Also the magnets are neodynium and these days are often epoxied onto a mu-metal backing plate. They are also a bit like glass and if a bits chip off or they shatter, the pieces explode away from each other (because the surface of the chips end up as opposing poles).

[LosOjos]

Remember that it's the 2.5" HDDs that tend to have glass platters (though not the server drives in that size) so are easy to destroy. For 3.5" HDDs, it takes a fair bit of hammering to destroy the platters sufficiently in many cases.

 

Easily solved by adding a nail to the equation IME

[elsiegee40]

Remember that it's the 2.5" HDDs that tend to have glass platters (though not the server drives in that size) so are easy to destroy. For 3.5" HDDs, it takes a fair bit of hammering to destroy the platters sufficiently in many cases.

I agree. Glass drives are a different matter and don't need taking apart. You just bash them until you hear sand inside!

 

Server and other metal drives need taking apart for physical destruction. Just bashing them does nothing.... Either that or a heavy duty drill that can go straight through the casing and the platter.

[sparkeh]

I just use a recycling company that destroys the data for you and provides you with documentation to that effect.

 

We use: PRM Green Technologies (free recycling service).

[zag]

After a lot of googling I finally found one that is a good price (£249), looks fun as well

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bSAfYce5ZI

 

Now to find a retailer..

[JRowley]

Found this one which looks nice but at £2,000 its a bit expensive

 

 

Better than a data protection fine I guess though

 

That's considered destroyed these days? 90% of the data on that drive is still readable.

 

My suggestion is to contact a company like Shred on Site | Paper Shredding & Confidential Secure Document Destruction Services to Shred It they can do a one day visit and can do industrial shredding (ie. hard drives), please note I have never used this particular company.

[synaesthesia]

Agreed, that punch looks crap and indeed those platters would still have readable data. I guarantee that isn't MoD approved.

 

Still though, £250 is a lot of money compared to a £5 lump mallet. Want confirmation it's done the job? Give the drive a quick shake. Hand it to the music department with a stick glued to it and save them some money too.