To the Test: Extreme Hard Drive Disposal Methods
Don't try this at the office (or, really, anywhere), but here are some interesting ways that people (hopefully not your end users) are handling hard drive disposal.
July 4, 2020
![To the Test: Extreme Hard Drive Disposal Methods To the Test: Extreme Hard Drive Disposal Methods](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt07f68461ccd75245/bltd726d111d0ff6180/6616aab8a6015712e30f0eb9/Hard_20Drive_20Destruction_201.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
The hard disk disposal method that I have probably heard recommended most often is drilling holes in the old drive. As such, that was where I started my testing. It took about 10 minutes for me to turn a desktop hard drive into swiss cheese using a hand-held drill and a drill bit that was designed for drilling into metal. I would consider this technique to be extremely effective, although, if I had to drill more than one or two drives, I would invest in a drill press and a large supply of drill bits. Drilling seven holes in the hard drive completely wore out the drill bit. Technically, it might be possible for someone to recover data from this drive if he or she went to extreme measures, but the data would be heavily fragmented.
Someone once told me that he cut old hard drives in half by using a reciprocating saw. I decided to test this method and used such a saw on a hard drive, but stopped short of sawing the drive in half because the saw kept vibrating the drive loose from my vice. I was also afraid that I was about to break a saw blade. Here’s what 3 or 4 minutes of sawing did to a hard drive. The damage that I caused would probably keep data from being recovered in a conventional way, but the vast majority of the data still exists on the disk’s platters.
I have never actually heard of anyone using an angle grinder to destroy a hard drive, but when I mentioned to a friend that I was going to be testing hard drive destruction methods, he asked me to try using an angle grinder. Overall, I found this method to be extremely effective. I can’t be sure, but it appears that the disk’s platter may have melted. Unfortunately, the grinder wheel broke before I could cut all the way through the drive. Incidentally, this was also one of the methods that required the least amount of physical effort.
Over the years, I have heard a number of people suggest taking a hammer to an old drive. I tried using a 3-pound demolition hammer to see what would happen. Here you can see that besides becoming covered in mud, the drive’s platters are exposed and cracked. I stopped prior to breaking the drive completely in half, but doing so would not have required much additional effort. Even so, it did take 2 or 3 minutes of hammering to get the drive to this state.
The next thing that I decided to try was hammering a chisel, like the one shown, into the drive. Initially, I tried using the same 3-pound hammer as before, but it was difficult to hit the chisel accurately.
I switched to a smaller hammer and then hammered the chisel into the drive. As you can see, the chisel did roughly the same type of damage as the drill, although the chisel made slightly larger holes. Even so, using a drill involved a lot less effort than a hammer and chisel.
Prior to doing these tests, I kept hearing people say that using an arbor press was a safe and efficient way of destroying old hard drives. If you aren’t familiar with an arbor press, you can see what one looks like here. This machine is made out of cast iron and rated for 4,000 pounds of force. I am using it in conjunction with a ⅜-inch center punch that magnetically attaches to the press.
Given how heavy the arbor press is, I expected it to make mincemeat out of the hard drives. However, it initially proved to be largely ineffective. The drive looks completely mangled (and it is). The problem is that the drive shown in the photo was run through the press multiple times, using every trick that I could think of. The arbor press does not use hydraulics, and therefore requires that you use brute force when you pull the handle. I put my full body weight on the press, but I weigh only 155 pounds. That apparently isn’t enough.
This is what the arbor press did to a laptop hard drive.
This is what the arbor press did to an SSD.
In the case of both the hard drive and SSD, the arbor press completely shattered the storage media and deformed the case as it punched a hole all the way through the drive. The most impressive thing about this test though, were the tiny fragments of disk that rained out of the HDD following the test. As you can see it looks like I broke a mirror.
So, which method was the best? Well, none of the techniques was perfect. and all of them have the potential to cause injury. For this and many other reasons, I recommend that you not try any of these methods. But here is a comparison of all the drives. I will let you decide for yourself which technique was most effective.
So, which method was the best? Well, none of the techniques was perfect. and all of them have the potential to cause injury. For this and many other reasons, I recommend that you not try any of these methods. But here is a comparison of all the drives. I will let you decide for yourself which technique was most effective.
Throughout my career in IT, I have heard of a number of different and creative methods for SSD and hard drive disposal. (Disposal of virtual drives is another matter--but one that also must be considered.) Of course, I’m not recommending any of these for corporate data--especially when it comes to compliance--but it’s interesting to look at the different methods people use (especially if any of those people could potentially include your end users).
Indeed, I strongly recommend using a professional-grade hard disk shredder or crusher, or utilizing a drive destruction service for SSD and hard drive disposal. It's also important to educate end users on appropriate disposal methods of any electronic device that stores sensitive information. This is especially important for employees who use their own devices for work, and even more of an issue now that more and more people are working from home.
But I was curious about some of the do-it-yourself methods. Specifically, I wanted to know which methods were most effective, required the least effort and were the least likely to cause injury. For the record, all of the methods that I am about to describe carry at least some potential for personal injury. During tests I wore all appropriate (and then some) protective gear. But, even so, I do not recommend trying any of these methods. In fact, I recommend against all of them.
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