Community poll forum: What do you do with your old hard drive?

or pass on to my son who uses them for his mp3 collection...

i did convert one 40G into an external (home made) USB HD (and used it to successfully transfer mpegs/mp3s to another computer)...

i have one 4G that i keep in a safe place as it has a clone of the windowsXP i'm using...
the theory is that if current HD fails, working/bootable clone will save my bacon

jonah


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You could use a programme like CyberScrub or KillDisk
or try writing Zero's to the disk.
hitbit

They are great magnets that are VERY strong. Just dont get them anywhere near a CRT or you will have colors on the screen you never knew existed!

Also good for MIG welding, holding bits together until you can tack weld then together.

I kept an old PC in the attic because someone told me
not to give it away. Does a person have to keep old PCs forever? Hope not. Let me know how to get everything off of the hard drive. I'm not computer literate like a lot of you so make it easy, please.

To remove the HDD and dispose of the computer. you may even get someone willing to buy it without the HDD inside it. For parts or some other reason.


But you should never under any circumstances dispose of a hard drive unless you can be certain that there is no personal or financial data stored on the drive and that your address book and e-mail does not contain data that you would not like others to gain access to. As a general rule in basic business security there is no warranty on HDD. If they fail they are replaced with new units and then the dead one is stored until the business has a sufficient supply to dispose of them correctly which generally means melting them down.

Now for smaller business or home use it is sufficient to just destroy the platters. Currently even with wiping software that exceeds DOD requirements it is still possible to recover data off the platers and it is even possible to recover individual data layers on any HDD. So even wiping reformatting and reloading by no means makes it certain that any data that was on the drive can not be recovered. While still expensive and mainly used for Government security work it is possible to recover any number of data layers on a HDD platters intact and make then into a boo table HDD. The only positive way to prevent this from happening is to totally remove all the magnetic material off the individual platters which means dismantling the drive and burning off the covering on the plater/s.

Of course you can always take your old HDD to a company who specializes in securely disposing of these things and will guarantee you their safe destruction.

You should ONLY use this option if your old drive was the root of problems with your computer. If this is the case, then the drive is EVIL, and you should also have a priest or shaman on hand to help deal with it. After the smashing, it should also be rendered completely exorcised with the cleansing purity of FIRE. Also, smashing it to smithereens will probably feel good.

What is required here is first to know how big the drive is, if it still is in working condition and lastly and far more importantly what data it contained.

Now if there was even the slightest hint of any financial transactions being stored on the drive and remember the e-mail as well you can use it as a slave drive if you have the room or should destroy the drive and completely remove any magnetic material off the platters inside the drive as that data can be recovered!

There have been several cases of major breaches in corporate security in the old days where now obsolete computers which had been devalued to nothing of value through tax write downs being disposed of and the drives not being replaced so the data was recovered. and used against the company or Government department where the computer came from.

Today however it is a different story Data Recovery procedures while still time consuming are a lot cheaper to do and buy the software to do it and many more people around the world are using computers and buying products on line or doing their banking on line. Now this data if it was to get out of the control of the persons responsible has been known to cripple them financially just through Philis hing but giving a HDD to someone makes the job so much easier. There was one case recently here where a house was sold out from under the owner with a forged document gained by accessing the banking records of a person who sold their old computer but had reloaded the OS and Software thinking that because they couldn't see the data anymore no one else could so for the few hundred $ that they saved by selling the old computer they lost their home all their money and had their credit cards maxed out.

They where effectively bankrupted by this action which any business would never allow to happen.

So unless you can absolutely guarantee that there is no sensitive data on the HDD and you have to remember e-mails and address books as well the drive should be replaced with a cheap new one and then the computer sold off the HDD if it can not be reused should be dismantled and the platters melted down so that there is no possibility of any data escaping your control.

For that HDD? Remember that every load can be recovered intact with the proper equipment would you be happy to risk your personal and financial security for the sake of a few $ saved in properly disposing of a HDD?

I did two things with mine...the new HP I bought had an IDE setup, as did my previous one, so the choice was easy. I copied all the files to my new hard drive by 'dragging and dropping.' Then, I deleted all the PROGRAM files from the old hard drive, freeing up lots of room. In that way, it acts as a 'backup' for any files I may need in future that I can't find.

Second, I partitioned the old drive, and put all the mp3 files I have on the empty space. I cannot access (by accident, but by choice only) the 'recovery' sector (kind of like HP uses a 'recovery' sector on its new computers), but I can now compartmentalize my music on the drive, saving space on the newer drive to do the work I need.

When I usually upgrade my computer system I will get
other parts needed to build up my old one and give it to one of my family members. If I just purchase a larger hard drive, then, I save the part until I can
build a cpu system. I have passed four system to the younger family members. Re-format the drive.

You could get a knock on your door in a few years when someone who got your old computer passed down a few times puts something on it. The 5th "new" owner may call the IRS or homeland security to get back at her married boyfriend, only thing is, you got stuff on there too. Strange but it happens. Maybe they're still clicking on "John" to use the computer. Smash the HDD, Burn the computer after you smash the HDD, whatever. Information never dies. It also becomes public very quickly.

I have a Hewlett-Packard windows 98. Just as soon as I acquire a new PC, I will take my trusty old sledge-hammer to my HP.
One, I figure it is the quickest and most thorough way to eliminate all traces of info remaining on the hard drive.
Two, because Hewlet-Packard's rebate program sucks big-time. I own several HP items and have mailed in several receipts & completed rebate forms to receive advertised rebates on various items. I am a very meticulous person in completing all the necessary steps to receive rebates and have always received them from other companies.
But, NEVER, NEVER have I ever been able to receive even one promised rebate from Hewlett Packard. I do, however, receive a letter advising me that they have received my rebate request. They always state that my submissions did not include original qualifying UPCs. This is their favorite response. I always make copies for my records to prove what I submitted to them, but, by then the rebate time has "expired" (according to HP). This is a big-time "cop-out" on HP's part and has convinced me that I no longer need to purchase their products. Why waste stamps sending for rebates you will never receive? SO, I intend to bash my 5 year old hard drive into at least a zillion pieces and forward it to HP along with my "original" UPC code and copy of my original receipt of purchase and wait and see if I still get their "standard letter of denial of rebate". I will buy my next PC from a company who practices honorable and fair consumer protocol.

I bought an external hard drive housing; removed the drive from the old computer and installed it in the housing. Now it has become an external drive which can be used for "backup". The drive housing is relatively cheap (about $23.00). The housing I bought does not have an internal cooling fan; there are more expensive housings that come with a cooling fan.

Doing this, I have access to all the old files that I wanted to keep but didn't want to copy to the new Hard Drive.

olddreamer

i've just thrown them away/stored them
but if it's a good disk
it gets reformated and put back into the system