The Great Zero Challenge

[Richard Jones]

On Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 11:42:24AM +0100, Mark Sowerby wrote:
> For HMG use only wiping systems listed at the link below should be used, 
> which have been tested to be suitable:
> 
> http://www.cesg.gov.uk/site/iacs/itsec/

I had a stack of old hard drives which I wanted to throw away.  I
wanted to make them unusable to casual thieves (ie. someone who might
steal them from my bins), but wasn't bothered about military-grade
attackers.  And the drives had various strange/old connectors [RLL
anyone?] so plugging them in and using 'dd' wasn't an option.

After posting on another mailing I found a cheap and simple solution.
Take a pair of goggles and an electric drill with a drill bit suitable
for metal.  Drill a hole vertically through the drive and PCB.  Make
sure you wear eye protection because particularly the PCB does tend to
fire sharp bits of metal and plastic around -- I've also heard that
some hard disks contain glass platters which could shatter, although
that didn't happen to me.  You do also need quite a serious electric
drill to go through some drives.

Took me about 45 mins to dispose of a big stack of drives this way.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat