[Dataloss] hard drive destruction

[Joe Francis]

I agree.  To worry about microscopy on the drive, it means that the 
FBI/CIA/NSA or another TLA is after you ... in which case they'll probably 
just kick in your door if they know where you live (which they must if 
they are stealing your trash).

I personally "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda && dd if=/dev/urandom 
of=/dev/hda" and then run a drill bit through the drive (not right down 
the middle of the spindle, but somewhere to the side but still hit the 
platters).  I think I drill moreso because it's fun than any other reason, 
though :)

Really paranoid places have grinders that can reduce any media (drives, 
removable devices, CDs, etc) to a powder.



On Wed, 16 Aug 2006, *Hobbit* wrote:

> For the 99% case, "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda" from a linux distrib
> booted to a shell will probably suffice.  Or maybe from /dev/random,
> which would take much longer.  I wouldn't think scammers in Nigeria
> or wherever are the ones going after old drives with magnetic-force
> microscopy or in-depth head-signal analysis...
>
> Clearly, the answer is to fill the drive up with pr0n and then
> send it off!
>
> _H*
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