Destroying hard disk - how far do I need to go?

BTW, I assume it is literally only the metal disc itself I need to destroy - the casing/PCB or anything else is irrelevant?
 
hoppy said:
there must be some seriously incriminating stuff on it, formatting the thing would have done!
Click to expand...
formatting is still recoverable if you want to go to the lengths & expense of doing it, but I'd say its job done at this stage

They say deleting all the files is the equivalent of throwing a piece of paper in the bin, but formatting the drive is the equivalent of shredding the paper and then throwing it in the bin
 
Caveat said:
BTW, I assume it is literally only the metal disc itself I need to destroy - the casing/PCB or anything else is irrelevant?
Click to expand...
No you need to destroy the case aswell in case any of the files migrated to the outer layer of the disk and magnetised themselves to the metal section of the case....

tie the case to a piece of string and to your car and drive around with it for a few days...that should do it
 
tosullivan said:
formatting is still recoverable if you want to go to the lengths & expense of doing it, but I'd say its job done at this stage

They say deleting all the files is the equivalent of throwing a piece of paper in the bin, but formatting the drive is the equivalent of shredding the paper and then throwing it in the bin
Click to expand...

That wrongs.

Actually deleting is like marking it with a pen must delete.
Formatting the disk is like putting them in a skip. You can still read them if you can find them. They might not be order.
Only overwriting the data with other data is the same as shredding.

Which is what secure delete/erasing tools to. They overwrite the old data marked for deletion with other random data. Once is enough but they can do it multiple times, which is like shredding a few times.
 
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