The fate of old hard drives
January 13th 2008 06:45
On Slashdot.com, an anonymous writer asks what he can do with a collection of old hard drives he has lying around. Apparently he’s taken them out of computers before they’ve been disposed of. He’s concerned about whether there’s still data on them that someone technical might find, and whether they have any other useful purpose.
The first response was obviously from someone who delights in going to the refuse dump and tossing lots of glass panes and semi-dismantled furniture and crockery pots into the bin – and hearing it all smash! His suggestion is to take a sledgehammer to the drives. Bit drastic, that.
Another writers claims that the following code will permanently overwrite the data: "dd if=/dev/dsp of=/dev/hd bs=1024". I make no claim to understand this piece of gibberish, but the writer is positive that it works, and that no ‘magic’ machine on earth will be able to reconstruct the information.
Others would extract the magnets, and make pendulum type devices that flicker when passing a magnet. Someone else says the magnets are excellent for opening rental and library DVD cases, but this sounds just a bit on the illegal side.
Another person uses them as fridge magnets, which seems a bit of a comedown when you consider what a remarkable job the magnets have previously been doing. It’s rather like getting a surgeon to do your garden.
Someone else with a nice line in alliteration says he personally pulls the platters apart, runs over them with a vehicle, and then chucks each platter in a separate garbage bin. Someone commenting on this says: You should make sure the garbage bins are in a separate countries too. One of the countries should then be destroyed with thermonuclear warheads.
And finally, a comment on the beauty of hard drives: “I take them apart to admire the incredible workmanship that goes into them; the mirror polished platters and the wonderfully light head mechanisms that float so incredibly close over them.
Hard disks may be mass produced and cheap, but the care and perfection that goes into them would set most jewellers to shame. They are really works of beauty.”
The first response was obviously from someone who delights in going to the refuse dump and tossing lots of glass panes and semi-dismantled furniture and crockery pots into the bin – and hearing it all smash! His suggestion is to take a sledgehammer to the drives. Bit drastic, that.
Another writers claims that the following code will permanently overwrite the data: "dd if=/dev/dsp of=/dev/hd bs=1024". I make no claim to understand this piece of gibberish, but the writer is positive that it works, and that no ‘magic’ machine on earth will be able to reconstruct the information.
Others would extract the magnets, and make pendulum type devices that flicker when passing a magnet. Someone else says the magnets are excellent for opening rental and library DVD cases, but this sounds just a bit on the illegal side.
The head of a hard drive
Another person uses them as fridge magnets, which seems a bit of a comedown when you consider what a remarkable job the magnets have previously been doing. It’s rather like getting a surgeon to do your garden.
Someone else with a nice line in alliteration says he personally pulls the platters apart, runs over them with a vehicle, and then chucks each platter in a separate garbage bin. Someone commenting on this says: You should make sure the garbage bins are in a separate countries too. One of the countries should then be destroyed with thermonuclear warheads.
And finally, a comment on the beauty of hard drives: “I take them apart to admire the incredible workmanship that goes into them; the mirror polished platters and the wonderfully light head mechanisms that float so incredibly close over them.
Hard disks may be mass produced and cheap, but the care and perfection that goes into them would set most jewellers to shame. They are really works of beauty.”
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Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
I had about 4 of them hanging from threads.
Misplaced them in a house move.
The disks are well balance and give a nice tone.
Comment by Mike Crowl
Webitz
Work Report
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Just keep undoing screws. A spring clip should be holing the disk shaft in place.
When you get it out you may want to spray a clear sealer on it or it will start to turn brown.
Drill a hole near an edge and you have your first chime.
Comment by James Rickard
unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Comment by Mike Crowl
Webitz
Work Report
James, you sound like a man after my son's heart: he used to pull all sorts of things apart to see what was inside. And mostly couldn't put them back together again!
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
The "Shiny thins” keeps may cat amused for ages
Comment by Mike Crowl
Webitz
Work Report