Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data? - Gizmodo Comments

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

JordyO — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:41:16 EDT

They actually came to my office a few months with a demo of this thing and it really does kick ass.

For those suggesting a hammer, plasma torch or other ways of doing it.. don't forget that this is meant to be used by a business who has to consider things like health & safety regulations.

Not to mention the fact that this will pop a drive in about 30 seconds compared to god knows how long with a hammer.

In any case, for what this thing does, it really is impressive!

JordyO

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

citizen024 — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:03:47 EDT

when will people learn a plasma torch is faster and more effective.

citizen024

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

bosskev — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:18:14 EDT

@almostdvs: "wouldn't a microwave be the best most efficient way..."

Nice idea, but won't work for any of my clothes. Microwaves interact...hey, wait a minute. Didn't we just do this?

I HATE recursive time loops.

bosskev

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Dickey — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:35:25 EDT

you can send me half the price you'd sped on this, and I'll destroy your hd for you, and have a h$#% of a time doing it.

Dickey

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

almostdvs — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:57:26 EDT

wouldn't a microwave be the best most efficient way...

almostdvs

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

athingunique — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:36:46 EDT

Now how can I come up with an excuse to buy that...
It's great how the stickers on the drives say 'Void if Broken'. I can just imagine someone sending their hdd back to the manufacturer after putting it through this thing: "I just can't understand why it won't work!!", "Sorry sir, but your warranty is void."

athingunique

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

whiteknight — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:05:53 EDT

After reading most of the posts in this thread i'm impressed by how much fun people are having with their defunct HDs. Now I want a dead HD to play with! ;-(

whiteknight

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

FritzLaurel — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:23:38 EDT

A drill and a power magnet will do a much better job.

FritzLaurel

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

shenanigans61 — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:42:31 EDT

Seriously, you could get me to buy you a sledgehammer and take care of your harddrives for 11G's a month.

shenanigans61

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Margatron — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:14:23 EDT

Sledgehammer Mario plus Fire Mario equals data safe.

Margatron

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

lunarstreaker — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:00:54 EDT

$11,500?????
Can you say, "Ball-peen hammer?"

lunarstreaker

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

spectator101 — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:27:55 EDT

Over priced!! Just use a Strider crash axe. (pointed side.) I tried it on one of my old HDDs, and it put a big mark right thru the platters. Pretty fun, and works great as stress relief too.

spectator101

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

ottermann — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:20:34 EDT

I work in a repair shop and we see a lot of Macs and Windows machines with dead HD's. We will recover what data we can, and cheerfully return the drive to the customer, if they choose. However, we guarantee we will safely dispose of any data that may be left on drives if they want.
We wait until we have a dozen or so drives, then take them to the gun club and use them as targets for the whole gang. Each drive gets hit by about 100 rounds of various rifle/handgun ammo. We have also been known to throw them up for use as trap shooting targets.
Then, the owner of the local recycling facility takes the remains and bundles the remnants up with all. the other recyclables to be melted down.
We have never had a customer complain about our method of data destruction.

Beer and guns. Data destruction at it's most fun.

ottermann

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Vault_Dweller — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:16:39 EDT

@SgtMac02:

Hitting with a sledge probably made it unusable under normal conditions but the whole point is to make the drive completely unrecoverable. It has to be in tatters in order to achieve that. Very difficult with a sledge, anvil and brute force I found.

And no :p This was for work. It would by my home computer's hard drives that would need the careful "whacks".

Vault_Dweller

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

lordargent — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:15:34 EDT

Maksimir: only way to completely destroy data is acid bath.

Melt it down in a crucible. Then pour it into a mold that best represents the type of data that was stored on the drive.

/The end result is a metal statuette of a naked woman.

lordargent

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

ljj — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:05:20 EDT

I have used the "low tech" approach to destroying a hard drive i.e., electric drill and sledgehammer. My only recommendation -- wear gloves and safety goggles.

ljj

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Nathan Drake — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:04:48 EDT

I just unscrew the cover and then bend and scratch the platters. I take it apart completely and then throw it in the trash. Ain't nobody messin' with that :P

Nathan Drake

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

dougiec29 — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:50:36 EDT

very fuzzy math

dougiec29

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

icemanik — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:46:33 EDT

At the University of Georgia they use a drill press and to drill a few holes through the drives before putting them in a compactor.

icemanik

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Glamdering — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:36:48 EDT

A gun and a few rounds of ammunition is a hell of a lot cheaper and more fun =)

Glamdering

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

wolfenstein-3d — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:33:30 EDT

possibility 1: Why has no one thought of throwing your hard drive into a volcano? I mean think of the posibilities! You could throw one in, or you could throw 150 in all at once. Total time - 5 seconds.

possibility 2: Shoot them into space. If you want to make sure aliens don't steal your shit, aim it at the sun.

possibility 3: drop it into a deep part of the ocean. When it gets found in 300 years, the people won't have the same technology, and have no clue what an IDE/SATA drive is. Even if they do decrypt it, who cares if people 300 years from now see your pr0n collection?

possibility 4: make an exact replica of the drive out of antimatter. Not only would you destroy the drive, but you could create enough energy to power the world for a few hours.

wolfenstein-3d

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

rodsky — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:27:44 EDT

chunking them on the ground works too

rodsky

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Hanke — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:23:07 EDT

I discovered that laptop hard drives generally have GLASS platters, and when they shatter...oh, boy, do they make a sweet mess.

Hanke

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

av8thor — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:19:19 EDT

$11.5K for a hydraulic press with a $1000 per year service contract?

Jesus has a product EVER said "No-bid Government Contract" more clearly?

Your tax dollars at work.

av8thor

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

easy2panic — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:18:16 EDT

My Most Fun Answer: aluminum powder and a metal oxide

easy2panic

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Tsumi91 — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:17:47 EDT

what about dynamite or burning it? fireworks??

Tsumi91

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

bosskev — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:13:44 EDT

@bosskev: Aack! Brain fart. Copy/paste wrong thread. Ignore.

* crawls back to rock *

bosskev

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

bosskev — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:12:33 EDT

@daftrok: "Or just throw it in the microwave."

Nice idea, but won't work for any of my clothes. Microwaves interact badly with gold lamé.

bosskev

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

daftrok — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:08:46 EDT

Or just throw it in the microwave.

daftrok

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

plastikwaren — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:06:19 EDT

I guess this might be good for high volume destruction... I think I'm just surprised that there is an actual need for that.

Still, I can (and have) done plenty of destruction with just a screw driver.

plastikwaren

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

damnElantra — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:02:20 EDT

@SkoGoody: bad fumes from burning plastics

damnElantra

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

SkoGoody — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:59:04 EDT

Maybe I'm a noob when it comes to this whole hard drive destroying business...But one would think you could just toss it in a fire and let it burn to a crisp??? I mean really, is it more complicated then that? I can't imagine it would be.

SkoGoody

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

damnElantra — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:54:41 EDT

checklist for killing a drive.
1. safety goggles, no one has fun loosing an eye
2. drill
3. pcu-less hard drive power.
4. screw driver. or anything hard

put on goggles, drill out HD screws, take off HD cap. plug in drive. wait for full speed spin. place hard object on spinning plater. press hard.

stand clear of any flammable materials

damnElantra

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Curves — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:43:32 EDT

@bosskev: LOL, I dont think many will know who that is. If memory serves, she can only erase 18 minutes of your hard drive, the rest is up to you to explain.

Curves

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

kb6ojs — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:42:27 EDT

@j4sk868: I wouldn't recommend using the household microwave for this. Tends to start fires and such. If you REALLY want to "microwave" your drive, head on up to Beale AFB in northern California and ask to stick it in front of the PAVE PAWS

kb6ojs

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Maksimir — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:40:28 EDT

@giyad: so very true...

Maksimir

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Roland Rat — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:40:07 EDT

Put it in you oven at 450F for 30mins. Ruins the magnets and everything else inside.
Don't recommend putting your Pizza in at the same time, you want that at 350F!

Roland Rat

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

bosskev — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:32:35 EDT

Looks useful, but I'm holding out for the next gen Rosemary Woods Signature Edition™.

bosskev

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

xint — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:30:45 EDT

Thermite?

xint

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

liveinvt — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:28:10 EDT

Hammer + Fire = Secure

liveinvt

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Froggmann — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:28:03 EDT

Ehh, i can do it for much cheaper.

This:

Plus buddy that welds equals many hours of stuff crushing fun!

Froggmann

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Carmen turns 19 in 5 days!!! — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:26:49 EDT

How would I spend?...MY LIFE

Carmen turns 19 in 5 days!!!

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

giyad — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:25:46 EDT

I'm sure Michael Scofield wishes he had one of those, then we wouldn't have had to go past season 1 of Prison Break...

giyad

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

B1663R — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:25:39 EDT

i'm pretty sure that a microwave will fry a HD. if not at least you get a decent light show.

B1663R

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Techguy1138 — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:20:32 EDT

What can this do you can't do with a drill press?

Techguy1138

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Dunny0, ELE Hopeful — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:19:59 EDT

This is weak. Anyone with a bit of spare time and the budget of a small nation could still recover data from that.

[www.semshred.com]

This is how you destroy a harddrive - make it into tiny, tiny bits. NSA approved!

Sure, it's a bit slow and a very loud, but it's also very therapeutic.

Dunny0, ELE Hopeful

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Bender — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:18:25 EDT

How to destroy a hard drive in 6 easy steps.

1. Take it apart.

2. Rub one of the magnets over both sides of each platter. (Bonus points for pressing hard enough to scratch the platters.)

3. Bend each platter back and forth a few times unitl the coating starts to splinter off.

4. Throw away everything but the magnets.

5. Tape the hard drive magnet under your co-worker's desk so it hits their leg where they keep their wallet.

6. Be a complete dick when they have to borrow money to pay for lunch because their credit card wont scan.

Bender

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Seiven — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:16:23 EDT

but WILL IT BLEND?????

Seiven

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

bloatboy — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:15:51 EDT

I use a sledgehammer and hit each drive like 10-15 times. Each hit I try and aim for a different part of the circular area.
The biggest problem I have is sweeping up the dust that used to be the platters.

bloatboy

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

WD40 — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:15:32 EDT

Open it and pour coke in it, contains all the acid you need!

WD40

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

frigg — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:07:53 EDT

Disturbingly, EDR offers a super saver shipping option to remote areas in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

frigg

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

dantaylor08 — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:01:03 EDT

It's called electromagnets. They're really really strong and guaranteed to destroy any last vestage of your por.. I mean sensitive data

dantaylor08

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

DeadWriter — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:00:38 EDT

I have a 1500 watt bulk Degausser. That coupled with software erase, and I have few worries.

DeadWriter

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

twylight — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:00:38 EDT

i bought a 20k magnetic unit at work...its a little effective -destroys even the chips in it, not just the platter data...

these kinda suck because it ruins RMA potentional on SAN drives and stuff, but for end of life...

twylight

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

ripfire — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:58:17 EDT

@doug316: The keyword here is "10 seconds".

ripfire

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

HilliardGadgeteer — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:57:52 EDT

Comment on Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data? When we retired several Alphaservers, I had the task of wiping several hundred drives. I found a great program called Darik's Boot 'n Nuke! It fits in a floppy, bootable CD, or bootable thumbdrive, and is AWESOME. Loads a small linux kernel w/ all the latest drivers for IDE / SCSI etc, then provides you with a simple menu system to select which drives (and how thoroughly) you wish to erase. I ran a few SCSI cabinets for several weeks straight w/ no problems.

HilliardGadgeteer

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

dry-roasted-peanuts — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:57:05 EDT

Nice, but I think I'll stick to my Sawzall.

dry-roasted-peanuts

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

ripfire — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:56:35 EDT

@discounteggroll:Hehe. Good one.

ripfire

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

ANoel — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:56:30 EDT

The outgoing Bush administration will SO need these.

ANoel

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

MacSeven.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:51:41 EDT

Boot and Nuke is my method of choice for wiping a drive clean. It takes a long time to do the secure methods but worth it.

MacSeven.com

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Canoehead — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:50:05 EDT

I would assume that the target market is the CIA office in the US Embassy in Yemen?

Canoehead

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

SigmundTheSeaMonster — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:46:45 EDT

Go to some catalog tool site and get a hydraulic press (8-10 ton). Cheaper and just as effective. (The 20-40ton presses jump up to the 4 digit price range...)
Drills and sledges can be more hazardous to the user than the drive.

SigmundTheSeaMonster

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

SgtMac02 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:43:41 EDT

@Vault_Dweller: Although the case may only be dented, I'm sure that the contents of the case were quite unusable after a whack or two with that sledge hammer. (That's not counting any of the whacks that took place while you were viewing the porn that you are now trying to get rid of)

SgtMac02

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

j4sk868 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:42:18 EDT

30 seconds in the microwave seems to do the trick. its all magnets.

j4sk868

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Castle1914 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:42:00 EDT

I could drop them in my forge for you and separate them into their constituent materials.

Castle1914

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Maksimir — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:41:57 EDT

You could dtill recover random bits of data from the platter fragments... only way to completely destroy data is acid bath.

Maksimir

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

SgtMac02 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:41:26 EDT

@ Sean: Oh, and if you account for an excessive 10 seconds to remove one drive's remains and place on another victim...it could do about 180 per hour...

SgtMac02

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

WordMan — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:41:02 EDT

I just wipe boogers on my old harddrives, so nobody wants to touch them.

WordMan

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

General Tsao aka Ivan the Impaler — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:40:56 EDT

ooooooh a new bar toy!

General Tsao aka Ivan the Impaler

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

doug316 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:40:34 EDT

Uh, how about freeware?

[sourceforge.net]

doug316

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Vault_Dweller — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:40:32 EDT

I've tried doing the sledgehammer treatment with some Hard Drives at my work - it doesn't work very well.

Ideally you just stick them to a giant degaussing machine or electromagnet.

Considering how fragile these hard drives are made out to be - having a 250lb guy slam down a big sledge on them did little more then dent the case.

Vault_Dweller

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

diverguy — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:39:31 EDT

I had to contact Toshibia customer support because the HD in my laptop died. We wound up in a conversation about ways to remove the sensitive data from the HD before shipping. The Customer Service Rep mentioned that sometimes they received HD's that had bullet holes in them.

I figure taking a HD to your local rifle range for 1/2 hour is probably must more effective than this machine.

diverguy

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

SgtMac02 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:39:26 EDT

What? And take all the fun out of pulling them apart by hand and getting out those cool super-strong magnets?!?! Bah!

SgtMac02

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Windhawk — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:39:02 EDT

Splatter your platter!

Windhawk

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

discounteggroll — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:38:34 EDT

take that 1's and 0's

discounteggroll

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

1roll20s — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:38:22 EDT

Couldn't you accomplish the same thing with a hand drill and a sledgehammer?

1roll20s

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

Charles — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:38:18 EDT

You could get a hammer.

Charles

Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?

kickace — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:38:13 EDT

this also duals as a blender, so your getting your moneys worth....

kickace