What did you do with your last old hard drive?
Put it in a closet. (How many drives do you have now?)
Sent it to the trash can. (Did you format it?)
Donated it. (Did you format it?)
Recycled it. (Did it cost you anything?)
Gave it to a friend or relative. (Any regrets?)
Reused it. (How so?)
Physically destroyed it. (How so?)
Made art with it. (Any pics?)
Other (Please explain.)
Actually, I used a 1/4" hispeed steel drill bit. Yes, I drilled 3 holes completely thru the hard drive case into the disk and out through the bottom!
Drill holes thru the thing. take it apart. and drill hole thru the disks
A local job-training agency provides electronics recycling services. They have an industrial-strength magnetic drive-zapper, and disassemble components for recycling. We pay a (voluntary) fee for the service.
The destruction of a Hard Drive is very easy if you live near the Ocean, and no I do not mean that you should pollute our world by chucking old drives into the briney deep! 2 weeks in a bucket of sea water will corrode everything inside including the plates. Just open the drive and let it marinate for 2 weeks or longer if you wish, the salt & minerals degrade the surface of the plates.
I took the platters out (Quantum BigFoot, anyone remember those!?) and a Maxtor 40 gig, and hung em on nails from the wall. They look sooo cool. I wonder how much it would cost to make a whole mirror out of hard drive platter material!?
I'll take pics on Tuesday when I am back at work.
-Jamie M.
I work in a compute shop and know the best way to render your personal stuff gone if you do not wish to give the hard drive to another. Have disassembled about 150 old drives and destroyed by smashing the disks. Other wise use a disk wiping software that will write 'O' & '1' at least twice. The average person will not be able to recover anything unless they have the very expensive programs or in law enforcement.
zzz1
I re-used it as backup storage by hooking it up to my USB2 port. The HD has its own power supply and appropriate cables.
I retrieved the hard drive from the computer before donating it. I unscrewed any screw I could find on the hard drive and then I took a sledge hammer to it until the metal met the metal on the other side. I then threw it in the trash.
Now there is a recycling program in my area. They use an industrial grade shredder that shreds the hard drive into small pieces.
Smash it with a hammer! Lotsa fun! That's what I did.
My nephew had a lot of fun by putting put last old hard drive in a 44 gallon drum and attacking it with a hammer.
I would never destroy or throw away an old hard drive- maybe give it to a friend if they need one- but I still have an old 6GB hard drive from a windows 3.1 laptop- but it turned out it was useful in the end- I found my old laptop and upgraded its 4GB to 6GB, and then put linux on it, although I never really use it still. Its just stting under my desk.
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