Hard Drive secure destruction/disposal service?

[mykalberta]

Does anyone know of a company that will do secure Hard Drive / tapes destruction/disposal?

Iron Mountain has a service but its quite expensive as its based on weight.

Thanks.

[IGGYRULES]

I just smash the #### out of mine with a hammer. I'm fairly good at wrecking things beyond recognition though sometimes not intentionally.

[zamler]

I have such a company, $50 a unit, guaranteed that not even a single bit can be recovered.

But seriously, just drill a hole through each one, done. That will discourage all but the most ambitious maniacs.

[Frank MetaMusil]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Does anyone know of a company that will do secure Hard Drive / tapes destruction/disposal?

Iron Mountain has a service but its quite expensive as its based on weight.

Thanks.

We use Recall at work, I don't ever see the bills though. It's just part of our standards.

You might want to give them a call.

http://www.recall.ca/about-us/contac...-recall-canada

[Fobby]

Go buy a rare-earth magnet (ones that has a pull force of 150lb+), take the drive out of it case, and WAM! Make sure you don't get your finger stuck in between...

[Hack&Lube]

What kind of quantity of drives are we talking about here?

Get an electric screwdriver and open each drive quickly and smash the platter with a hammer/chisel. Close it back up and throw it into a box. Drop off at Staples/Army Base/any other Alberta electronics recycling depot.

[Rathji]

I normally DBAN them and just open the case and remove platters. Then you can smash/drill them as you feel comfortable. I know one fellow who would use a home made forge (cinder block casing w/ acetylene torch jury-rig)to turn them into slag, but he had the setup for his other insane ventures - ie trying to make swords in his garage.

[OldDutch]

Just curious, but how secure is just "zeroing out" the drive, or even some of the other methods to overwrite the drive multiple times?

Can someone still get the data off the drive after this happens? or at least enough to do damage? More specifically, is it necessary to smash the drive, or is that going over the top?

[Rathji]

Pretty secure. IIRC the DOD standard for a secure data wipe is fulfilled by a triple pass.

That said, if someone has limitless resources, the only way to be 100% sure is by slagging the drive. I promise you though, your facebook password, naked pictures of your wife and all your banking information isn't worth the time.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Fobby

Go buy a rare-earth magnet (ones that has a pull force of 150lb+), take the drive out of it case, and WAM! Make sure you don't get your finger stuck in between...

This is actually extremely unlikely to work - most electrical degaussers are no longer sufficient, unless you step up to truly industrial sized ones. The coercivity of modern drives is incredibly high, and perpendicular recording on modern high density drives makes it all but impossible for ordinary magnets to do anything.

Check out the specs on the magnets these guys used to no avail:
http://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp?...ve-destruction

And here is what a modern degausser looks like:


It's 130 pounds!

Far better to use DoD level wiping as others have mentioned, and dispose of the drives away from your place of business so that someone can't/won't target the disks knowing they are yours. Even better, simply store the disks until the data is no longer of interest or value (if possible - obviously stuff like medical info is always sensitive)

[gottabekd]

If I wanted to wipe a drive securely, I'd run Darik's Boot and Nuke from a bootable CD, such as http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Free, of course, and complete overkill.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

This is actually extremely unlikely to work - most electrical degaussers are no longer sufficient, unless you step up to truly industrial sized ones. The coercivity of modern drives is incredibly high, and perpendicular recording on modern high density drives makes it all but impossible for ordinary magnets to do anything.

Try doing it when the HD is spinning. The 60hz pulse causes the heads to jump up and down on the platters and they break off, crashing around and doing serious damage to the platters.

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

I DBAN my HD whenever I reinstall the OS. With my current setup, the entire HD is encrypted. I still plan to DBAN when the time comes (reinstall, disposal, etc).

[Fobby]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

This is actually extremely unlikely to work...

I just wanted a FS: Rare-earth magnet thread in the buy/sell so I have a super strong magnet to play with...

[mykalberta]

We have roughly 400 backup tapes and 200~ hard drives.

The most secure have gone through DOD wiping standards but if I dispose of the drive and something comes back to bite me its my a$$ on the line.

From what I can tell Re-Call only does document management and destruction. If they were my own drives I wouldnt have a problem bit wiping them and maybe taking a drill but at an office location that doesnt seem to be a prudent solution.

I think if someone saw me with a sledge hammer in the loading dock destroying hard drives they might call the police on me.

[Frank MetaMusil]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

We have roughly 400 backup tapes and 200~ hard drives.

The most secure have gone through DOD wiping standards but if I dispose of the drive and something comes back to bite me its my a$$ on the line.

From what I can tell Re-Call only does document management and destruction. If they were my own drives I wouldnt have a problem bit wiping them and maybe taking a drill but at an office location that doesnt seem to be a prudent solution.

I think if someone saw me with a sledge hammer in the loading dock destroying hard drives they might call the police on me.

Recall brings a truck and shreds the tapes right onsite while you watch. They will give you a certificate afterwards. I normally get around 2000 destroyed at a time though, usually once a year. They will do hard drives this way also.

[brian2650]

MOD EDIT: This is a spam post where someone from the company ERA (or Electronics Recycling Association) signed up and, pretending to be a 3rd party, advertised their business.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Frank MetaMusil

I normally get around 2000 destroyed at a time though, usually once a year.

That's a lot of porn.

[PIMking]

Use em as skeet targets?

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally Posted by brian2650

MOD EDIT: This was a spam post where someone from the company ERA (or Electronics Recycling Association) signed up and, pretending to be a 3rd party, advertised their business.

Bumping a 1.5 year old thread is a pretty clumsy way of social media advertising!

Never give ERA your phone number, they will never stop calling.