When you go to get rid of your computer is taking out the hardrive good enough?

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When you go to get rid of your computer is taking out t... - 4/28/2010 4:27:45 PM

winterlight

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Is there anything else that has to be done to the computer to get rid of anything besides removing the hard drive?

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 5:01:12 PM

pahunkboy

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sometimes the RAM can be of use.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 5:26:02 PM

DarkSteven

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Are you meaning to prevent anyone snooping about what you've done?

If so, the hard drive has the records of what you've done and said. Remove it, and the computer is clean.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 5:51:11 PM

sappatoti

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quote:

ORIGINAL: winterlight

Is there anything else that has to be done to the computer to get rid of anything besides removing the hard drive?

If this device has given you grief more than good service, dropping it from the roof of a seven-story building might give you some much needed satisfaction. Otherwise, take it to one of the recyclers in your area that deals in electronic waste and feel good about it.

Removing the hard drive is all that's needed to keep your stuff out of another's hands.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 5:54:09 PM

pahunkboy

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That is why every house needs a nice handy dandy axe.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 5:56:47 PM

sappatoti

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quote:

ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

That is why every house needs a nice handy dandy axe.

Absolutely! Just don't forget the all important safety goggles.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 5:58:34 PM

pahunkboy

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For sure. :-)

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 6:54:31 PM

Sserpentia

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Just get rid of your hard drive. Take a bat to it first.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 7:36:41 PM

ThatDamnedPanda

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If you really want to be super-safe, the best way to protect yourself is to drill a few holes in the hard drive after you pull it. Even then, it's still technically possible for some of the data to be recovered, but nobody short of the NSA or CIA has the resources to do it on a cost-effective basis. Just make sure you drill through the platters, and you'll be fine.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 7:38:57 PM

Smutmonger

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There are drive wipe utilities avaialable in many places-they write zeros to all the drive space. do it two or three times-and it's going to take a wizard to pull anything up. Putting it next to a big speaker magnet will wipe it too.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 9:25:55 PM

ResidentSadist

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A bulk tape degausser will remove ALL data. . . forever . . . not even the CIA can get it back.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 9:29:53 PM

winterlight

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Yes, Dark Steven that is what I want.

Thanks all for your replies! :)

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 4/28/2010 9:38:42 PM

Termyn8or

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Smut, if those platters exist the data can be restructed to some extent.

If you want to destroy the data you must basically use an axe. Make sure it is sharp and cuts through the housing and actually through the platter. It might not even get through, but if you bend it enough that should do it. Even then fragments can be recovered. Remember, even a sledge hammer might not do this. You MUST severly deform the platter(s). One way it to be sure is to actually break the case. An axe is really the better tool. Other ways would include taking the small tools out and removing the platter(s) and bending them in half. Then you bend them back. You will see the coating coming off. Then bend it on the opposite axis, 90 degrees and cause more to shred. At that point you are pretty damn sure, but till fragments could be recovered, but the reliability of this method even exceeds those of a DNA paternity test.

The basis is, even the programs that write all zeros can't be trusted. This is because of something called depth multiplexing. They can focus the detection field to below the normal surface and pick up even overwritten data almost no matter what. I long thought that, and it is still true, overwriting the data is better, and THEN all zeros, and THEN overwriting agian. But don't leave it all zeros, because as good as you may think such a program is, it might be the first thing they use to recover data from lower layers on the platter. It provides a queiter background level and thus less error correction. So leave them a bunch of noise to deal with. It's worse for them than all zeros.

There are even better pushbutton methods to do this, but they are very hard to do. If you could force it to LLF with a different track pitch that could be good, but just give it a try. You need to steal more information to do this than you are trying to delete. All in all, for 99% of people, the axe is best.

T

< Message edited by Termyn8or -- 4/28/2010 9:39:23 PM >

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 5/2/2010 1:41:43 PM

anthrosub

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I just swapped out a bad hard drive a couple weeks ago. I took the old hard drive outside, laid it on a nice big rock, and then took my extra large one pound ball-peen hammer (I call it the Persuader) and made mincemeat out of it. It's always good to use protection folks.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 5/2/2010 1:48:01 PM

Cuffkinks

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Two words for you...
Heckler & Koch.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 5/2/2010 1:50:41 PM

Arpig

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Holy fuck, there are some seriously paranoid folks on here...what sort of sick illegal shit do you have on your drive that you need to go to that extent to remove it?

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 5/2/2010 2:13:39 PM

mnottertail

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well you can just drill thru the harddrive. but seriously, just wipe off the personal shit and copy massive PDFs or whatever, any large text until you are over 70% of the drive used and then reorganize the drive several times. It will most certainly overwrite the data, then you can use this program http://www.summitcn.com/download.html (it is a scrubber) and use it three or more times after deleting the pdf files, anything else, in order to read the disk is going to require millions of dollars, so unless its the government, your shit is as safe as in gods pocket.

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 5/2/2010 4:42:57 PM

Aneirin

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The last hard drive I killed, I took it apart maybe surgically piece by piece to see just what was in there and with the discs removed, I destroyed them with tin snips. The result of my exploration into how a hard drive ticks, is some supper strong magnets I can use somewhere else, ( currently stuck to me refrigerator awaiting a use).

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RE: When you go to get rid of your computer is taking o... - 5/2/2010 4:49:48 PM

Subversed

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2nded. honestly, there's little more of an explanation available other than illegal content.

pirated software elicits almost no response from law enforcement, and music is just a myth.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Arpig

Holy fuck, there are some seriously paranoid folks on here...what sort of sick illegal shit do you have on your drive that you need to go to that extent to remove it?

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