Ever look inside a hard drive?

Lance · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 9:56 am

This was my Girlfriend's mother's EX External Hard drive. Sadly It died to an I/O failure... So she said it needs to be destroyed due to personal data. So We decided to first break the case with a 20in and a 28in sword. Then once at her house I took out a hammer and started rage for all 5 HDs I lost. After I opened the metal caseing I got the disk out and hit it with a magnet! Therefore the disk now can't be accessed and for a reward and early B-day gift I was given a 500GB external! This should last a long time.

Adbot · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 9:56 am

EnglishPenguin · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 11:02 am

Lucky sod. I wanna rip apart a computer when I get enough spare money to do it, just for the hell of it.

EDIT: 700 posts!

Lance · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 4:06 pm

Like I said it was broken and dead so Might as well. Plus I wanted to do this to mine 5 Hard drives ago!

Mushroom Queen · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 5:52 pm

Oooh, I Want close-ups! Looks cool.

Mikhail · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 6:55 pm

Seen it before, Did it before...I rippped apart someone old 7gb hd...Although if you stuck it the freezer,instead of disassembling it it woulda work again, but It rarely happens, I got lucky doing that so i did not lose any info on it.

Lance · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 7:13 pm

The Beatles wrote:

Seen it before, Did it before...I rippped apart someone old 7gb hd...Although if you stuck it the freezer,instead of disassembling it it woulda work again, but It rarely happens, I got lucky doing that so i did not lose any info on it.

Well she did get a new bigger one so no matter what It wasn't needed for her. plus the other reason is that how long would it still last?

Adbot · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 7:13 pm

Shane · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 7:42 pm

You should let those disks sit in some HCl just to be sure they're gone

Anyways take a look at this if you need help destroying the data

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKQIMlcX9Ko

Sidespin · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 7:47 pm

I want to destroy a computer :twisted:

lol

Mikhail · **Posted:** June 6th, 2007, 9:12 pm

Eh I don't really know how much would it hold on maybe several hours...Mines worked for 8 hours than died completely.

Gzpro · **Posted:** June 7th, 2007, 6:34 am

I want to blow up my computer.

Lance · **Posted:** June 7th, 2007, 8:40 am

Shane wrote:

You should let those disks sit in some HCl just to be sure they're gone

Anyways take a look at this if you need help destroying the data

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKQIMlcX9Ko

How about a High power magnet though that is a good idea. And all that was on the drive was backups (With the data) as I was told. So I Did as so. Just gotta find some HCl!

Rynne528 · **Posted:** June 8th, 2007, 8:41 am

It was fun getting that thing apart. That thing was a pain of the neck to try and get working.

neb934 · **Posted:** June 16th, 2007, 9:35 pm

Shaun wrote:

Lucky sod. I wanna rip apart a computer when I get enough spare money to do it, just for the hell of it.

EDIT: 700 posts!

We got to rip aparte an old atrie, 2 printers, and a computer for Robtices.

But ya it looks cool inside.

kamakiri · **Posted:** June 17th, 2007, 1:33 am

You are probably safe just having that thing apart, but I really don't think a normal magnet will erase your data like you think it will.

Youronly sure way is to break the platters. They are shiny and look like metal, but I assure you they are not. They are made on a glass substrate with a cobalt based ceramic. They shatter nicely, so don't think you can bend it or you will end up with an eye full of shards.

Christopher · **Posted:** June 20th, 2007, 9:29 pm

Lance wrote:

Shane wrote:

You should let those disks sit in some HCl just to be sure they're gone

Anyways take a look at this if you need help destroying the data

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKQIMlcX9Ko

How about a High power magnet though that is a good idea. And all that was on the drive was backups (With the data) as I was told. So I Did as so. Just gotta find some HCl!

Unless it was an electromagnet...it probably wasn't high power enough. Popular Mechanics recommends physically drilling holes in the disk. Hard drives are like black boxes they are virtually indestructible these days. And HCl would probably work too.