When you're destroying old hard drives......

[unfaithfulsfan]

that have been on the shelf for a few years, making sure no one can EVER access the data again, be careful with old IBM DiskStars.

What I have been doing in my spare time and in between repairs is disassembling the 150+ old drives to try to clean up the back of the shop and regain some shelf space. I'll remove the controller board, mangle and destroy the pins, flex the board a few times to break as many traces as possible. Then on the drives I can get open, I take a hammer and a punch and whack the platters a few times before pitching the remnants.

I opened the aforementioned DiskStar and gave it a good whack. Little did I know that the platter was made out of glass! So I spent the next 10 minutes cleaning up little shards from all over the back room. Guess no one will be able to steal any data from *THAT* one!!

I'm just glad nothing flew into my eyes!

Jack

[skier]

I'm just glad nothing flew into my eyes!

Jack

ouch, that would not be fun, you couldn't tell it was glass before smacking it?

[unfaithfulsfan]

I had my own little production line thing going trying to get as many done this afternoon as I could. Honestly, I wasn't paying that much attention.

[InspectahACE]

ouch, that would not be fun, you couldn't tell it was glass before smacking it?

that's the beauty of smacking it, to find out what it is

[DMB2000uk]

Wow, a glass hard drive. How big were the platters?

Might have made a nice decorative piece.

Dan

[unfaithfulsfan]

It was a standard sized platter. I had no idea!
Jack

[martini161]

Why not use Boot 'n nuke?

[Tim Burton]

Take it out to the forest, shoot it 5 or 5 times and then bury it a foot or two deep in a wet nasty place.

[vicaphit]

Or just put it outside in a box labeled FREE...

[bubba]

Silcon platters are just as brittle as glass, and just as hard to pull the splinters from it from your skin. My sister worked for a local company cutting silicon.

Best way (for destructive disposal) is to drill it, then drive the box of junk to the recycle center. DO NOT THROW THEM IN THE TRASH OR BURY THEM IN A HOLE this is bad. Drilling through the case is easy, destroys the platters inside the drive case (no shards to the eyes) and makes for nice easy clean up.

I'll admit, shooting them is fun, but its easier clean up after drilling them.

If they are usable drives, Boot and Nuke is the way to go. Re-gift to family or sell in garage sale's, you will be amazed how fast they go.

[Darkstar]

wow an IBM DEATHSTAR, i havent seen one in years, i figured they pretty much self destructed anyway