Desktops forum: Poll: What did you do with your last old hard drive?

I removed it from the PC, took it to the garage and put it in a vise. Then I drilled several holes in it. Finally, I put it on the cement floor and smashed it with a small sledge hammer. Very satisfying, I might add.

I do a simple Windows format on old harddrives and use them with a drive adapter as an external storage device. I am, to this day, using several 6 and 10 megabyte harddrives in this manner. One would have a hard time convincing me that a hard drive has a short lifespan with my experience. I agree that a harddrive has some finite life expectancy, but when I am using harddrives on a daily basis that are approaching 20 years old I simply do not buy into the idea that a harddrive is a delicate instrument with a short lifespan. (Bought my first computer in the mid '80s) In my 25 years computer experience including the use of old harddrives in this manner I have seen 2 harddrive failures; one old device with an unknown history and one new one still within factory warranty.

I went and pasted the wrong name to that. So sorry, john3347!

I agree, I have some drives "still working after all these years" (with apologies to Paul Simon.)

But I also have had quite a few warranty replacements and the odd drive totalled by physical shock, so I do treat them gently and do my backups as best I can. I have also duplicated the experiment that someone published on the web, where he had removed the lid from an old IDE drive and then continued running it for months in an ordinary office environment.

So, yes, hard drives can stand more abuse than common folklore may tell you. But it isn't what I would bet my valuable data on.

Ive either destroyed old hard drives or reused it as an external drive. If the drive isn't old and works well, I just sell it on eBay after formatting it. Destroying HDDs is so much fun.

I either use to store a backup or give it to a friend at work who does repairs on old computers. Either way I first wipe any incriminating... er, private data.

I have about a dozen or so old hard drives from laptops and desktops range in size from 2GB to 160GB. But my collection of old computer junk doesn't stop there...I also have an old Commodore 64, an Atari 1200XL, several 5.25" floppy drives, and I think I still have a 5MB hard drive for an Apple II. Yes I said 5 MEGABYTE hard drive!

I wanted those small super strong magnets that are in the drive... yes there are some very powerful magnets in there. The uses of these little magnets are a lot of fun. But first remove the hard disk platters now that it is open and destroy them... drill, grind, burn, use your imagination.

Now those little magnets... you can attach a couple of them to the bottom of a McDonalds coca cola cup and put it on the roof of your car as if you set it there and forgot as you take off. You'll have people going through all sorts of gyrations to tell you that you left your coke on the roof of your car. Other uses come to mind too. Use your imagination.

I'd like to donate these but I need help with exactly how to remove all my data while leaving the programs.
we are starting an after school program for kids to get more proficient with computers and they'll need the software.

Both computers are PCs with Windows XP and Office.

Data remanence is the residual representation of data that remains even after attempts have been made to remove or erase the data. This residue may result from data being left intact by a nominal file deletion operation, by reformatting of storage media that does not remove data previously written to the media, or through physical properties of the storage medium that allow previously written data to be recovered.


Message was edited by: Lee Koo (ADMIN) 02/06/2012 9:35AM to fix broken links

Best bet is to get a good scrubbing utility disk like DBAN or The Ultimate Boot Disk to overwrite and erase everything on the drives. Then reinstall XP and Office. All personal info is gone with no file remnants for anyone to uncover.

I never keep any compromising information on the computer, so was not too concerned. Also since the mother board had failed and the computer had Windows Vista 32 bit, I had the mother board replaced and updated to Windows 7 64 bit. I completely got rid of all my data on the drives that were inside the computer. I didn't keep any passwords for Financial Institution on the computer. Any other passwords were for informational sites and by now they are likely completely replaced. Just donating the computer without deleting the data on the drive is not a smart thing to do. If you just do a normal delete, it will likely be OK especially if it is a home computer. If the computer is used in a business, then the hard drive should be removed and physically destroyed. It wouldn't be wrong to erase the data on a donated home computer with a professional deletion program, but probably not necessary. You should definitely make sure that any financial data and passwords are erased.

I collect used computers and ask that the disks be professionally erased before I get them, but, that usually only happens on computers from companies.
I run "The Ultimate Boot Disk" on them and use the toughest program that the computer can deal with to erase and overwrite the drive. I then install, or try to install Vinux which is Ubuntu re-scripted to automatically enhance the accessible features of Ubuntu. Usually any computer that ran XP well has no trouble with Vinux. Any computer that came with later versions of Microsoft almost always takes the Vinux install. Once installed and tested, the computers are given to vision impaired computer users and wanna be computer users. This offers a chance for opening the doors for a much better social life once they get online and start emailing, facebooking, or IM'ing, learning computer skills and quite possibly qualifying for employment or better employment. Vinux is suitable for low vision, blind and, with a Braille display, deaf/blind users.
After a scrubbing with one of the utilities off of The Ultimate Boot Disk and installing Vinux there's no chance of anyone getting any old info off of the drive since the old file structure has been rewritten once and then the NTFS file structure is again overwritten when it's changed to the Linux file structure during the installation.
An extra for anyone who wants to do this, the USPS has a 'Free Matter for the Blind' mailing program that covers any processor with Vinux installed. That'd be the tower for a desktop or an entire laptop. Since monitors, keyboards (unless they have large image keys), mice and such can't be specifically altered just for low vision use, they aren't eligible. Peripheral hardware can usually be purchased fairly inexpensively or gotten from friends and relatives when the recipient gets the computer by United States Postal Service. You can give your computer to a friend or relative who needs assistive aids or to a church, the Salvation Army, a local Lions club or a local chapter of the blind or deaf/blind. Or use it for yourself if you have vision trouble.
Find links to info about Vinux here; distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=vinux

OOPS! Instead of plasma cutter, make that an oxyacetylene torch. Yes, I've got the distinct flavor of a terminal part of the vertebrate leg upon which an individual stands in my mouth! LOL!

Used DBAN software on it, took it out of the desktop, gave the desktop to recycling, and gave the drive to a relative for a backup.