[ale] Sanitizing dead hard drive

[aaron]

On Thursday 16 August 2007 18:07, David Corbin wrote:
> What do you folks do when a hard drive "dies"
> (i.e. you cannot get it work in 
> your PC) and you wish to dispose of it?  I'm not worried about they physical 
> disposal (I'll save it for electronic recycling) if I can be confident that 
> the data on won't be readable by someone with advanced tools.  So the 
> question is, how do you make sure that the data cannot be read.
> 
> Thanks

:-) Disregarding that concern over someone tracking your
dead drive, snagging it from a trashpile, resurrecting the
device by tediously replacing the electronics with working
duplicates and then forensically recovering your prawn
collection is just a tad on the paranoid side... ;-)

If it really concerns you, you can disassemble the drive
and remove the platters. A large electromagnet in contact
proximity should render the data permanently unreadable.
 
And THEN you can use the platters to make some music!

Dead drive disks make GREAT rhythm / percussion
instruments -- their high grade aluminum produces a 
crisp, high pitched, ringing mini-gong / finger cymbal
sound.  Put your thumb through the platter hole, tap the
platter with a hard striker, roll your fingers and hear the
pitch shift in a pleasant "wah" sound as you mute it.

One of the favorites among my many "found sound"
instruments.

peace
aaron

> -- 
> David Corbin
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