Ways to prepare HD drives for recycling?

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[Kathy Stevens]

We are in the process of retiring computers that will not support Windows 11 and, in some cases, are more that 10 years old as well external hard dries.

As part of the process, we are moving all data files from each computer and external drives to 4TB WD BLACK P10 Game Drives.

Then we need to make sure that the retired drives are save to recycle – ie. that no data can be recovered by a third party.

We are considering multiple options including but not limited to:

• Using Acronis Drive Cleaner – that overwrites the drive making data recovery next to impossible to recover – a time-consuming undertaking,
• Opening the drive and bending the plates by hand – also a lot of effort,
• Wack the drive with a sledge hammer or large rock – quick and easy, or
• Throw the drives in the swimming pool and fish the out in the spring.

I am open to your thoughts as to the best method.

• This topic was modified 4 months, 1 week ago by Kathy Stevens.

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

Useing Acronis Drive Cleaner – that encrypts the drive making data recovery next to impossible to recover – a time-consuming undertaking,

Works, as long as you can guarantee the entire disk is overwritten during the encryption process. Overwriting the entire disk with random data will be faster and have the same effect– but note that for either approach this can be a pretty technical feat if you’re working with SSD devices due to their internal wear leveling/bad block replacement algorithms.</p>

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Opening the drive and bending the plates by hand – also a lot of effort,

If you have a lot of disks, there are data/disk destruction services available. Degaussing them with super strong magnets, shredding the physical media, etc.

 

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Wack the drive with a sledge hammer or large rock – quick and easy, or

This approach alone can often leave data recoverable.

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Throw the drives in the swimming pool and fish the out in the spring.

Likewise, this is not guaranteed to destroy the data from one determined to recover from your disks.

 

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Kathy Stevens

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SDelete – Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Kathy Stevens, PL1

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Using SDelete (above) and doing one pass (the default) is all you ever need to securely erase data on a modern HDD. Despite comments on the internet, you cannot dismantle a modern disk and use an Electron Microscope to recover data (it was only ever theoretically possible on old non SATA disks).

On SSDs, the disk management processes (TRIM and garbage collection) will erase the cells after you delete the files. If you are feeling extra paranoid, some manufacturers have secure erase utilities.

cheers, Paul

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TechTango, Kathy Stevens

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Kathy,

1. My preferred method is to use a Partitioning Program (Nuibi, Partition Wizard Mini-Tool, etc.) to delete all partitions on the drive.
2. Use Eraser (or you could use SDelete as pointed out by Susan) to clean the free space which will at this point be the entire drive. I use only a single pass.

One thing to remember that short of PHYSICAL destruction of the device the data may still be recoverable if you have enough money to throw at the problem, I’m talking 6 figures +. This requires a clean room and highly expensive equipment and loads of time. Thus, unless you are targeted as having “highly” valuable information (usually governments or really large corporations) you’re not likely to need physical destruction. Although you can make recovery even harder by removing the circut board from the HDD which is only a couple of screws.

One other method you could employ, if you know someone at a junk yard that has one of those magnets on the end of a crane, used to pickup cars, having them pick up your drives will surely destroy them.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Kathy Stevens

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RetiredGeek wrote:

short of PHYSICAL destruction of the device the data may still be recoverable

Urban myth

cheers, Paul

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Kathy Stevens

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Paul,

Maybe. However I worked 25+ years for a 3 letter agency that Always physically distroyed all magnetic media.

People smarter than me set up this policy.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Rick Corbett, Kathy Stevens

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I sent in a hard drive to Kroll when it was “tick tick tick” ing and we didn’t get much back at all.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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TechTango, Kathy Stevens

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Or more paranoid!?

cheers, Paul

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Didn’t know they did ‘floppy burgers’ in various sizes.
Double 5.25″ with cheese and relish please.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Cybertooth

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Due to the nature of the contents of the data files on the hard drives being recycled, I have decided to:

• Delete the partitions on each drive,
• Use Acronis True Image for Western Digital to wipe the drives using the U.S. Standard, DOD 5220.22-M destruction method,
• Then take the drives out to the shop, put then on the drill press, and drill multiple large holes in each drive, then
• Take them to be recycled.

Thanks all for your help.

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No real secret stuff on our old drives, but just in case there is anything sensitive, I use a drill press to drill a hole through the housing and platters.

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

I have decided to:

Overkill – just drill the holes.

cheers, Paul

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

Delete the partitions on each drive,

Waste of time, I’ve been known to recover 100% data + running Win NT after the PC was Fdisked +formatted to FAT32, installed Win9x and used for 2 years. One floppy disk and a few minutes is all that took.

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Satrow

Have you recovered data from a drive that had:

• Deleted partitions,
• Had been wiped using the U.S. Standard, DOD 5220.22-M destruction method, and
• Had multiple large holes through the disks?

Or are you simply saying that it is unnecessary to delete the partitions to prevent data recovery?

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

it is unnecessary to delete the partitions to prevent data recovery?

It’s pointless, anyone with experience/knowledge could reverse it in minutes.

Destroy the data by overwriting then physically ruin the internal disks.

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No need to overwrite data if you drill the disks…

cheers, Paul

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

Using Acronis Drive Cleaner – that overwrites the drive making data recovery next to impossible to recover – a time-consuming undertaking

Consumes time… and LOTS of electrical energy, as each and every drive will be spinning constantly for hour after hour as each sector is overwritten.

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Opening the drive and bending the plates by hand – also a lot of effort

… and possibly dangerous. Many drives these days use coated glass platters. They don’t bend, they shatter into tiny, very sharp pieces.

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Wack the drive with a sledge hammer or large rock – quick and easy

Not as efficient as using an easier to heft lump hammer to drive a long-handled thin chisel through the casing and platters. The length is to keep your hands well away from either end of the chisel; the narrower the chisel, the easier it is to penetrate the casing.

(In my last IT job I was tasked with destroying umpteen dozen server hard disks. Although we had an HDD Shredder machine I couldn’t tolerate the deafening noise, even with mandatory ear defenders on (which I had to attempt after hours so my colleagues 2 rooms away weren’t also deafened). I bought a long, thin chisel very cheaply and finished the job much quicker than the shredder.)

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Throw the drives in the swimming pool and fish the out in the spring.

You want metals leaching into water people may swim in? Poor swimmers…

Hope this helps…

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Evit, satrow, PKCano

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RetiredGeek wrote:

However I worked 25+ years for a 3 letter agency that Always physically distroyed all magnetic media.

I worked for a local council. Before disposal, the IT department was mandated to physically destroy any HDD (this was before SSDs) that had any type of credit card transaction data recorded. The physical destruction had to be verified and signed off by the IT Security Manager in order that the council could maintain ISO certification as a Payment Service Provider.

We also had to destroy HDDs from printers and photocopiers used by any team involved in any form of credit card transactions. (The photocopiers caused no end of expense ‘cos they were leased, not purchased… so we had to pay for an engineer to swap out each disk for a new replacement.)

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Kathy Stevens, TechTango

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Shiny HDD platters make for nice cup coasters IMO
The HDD pcb with IC controller is handy for a spare, only if you have
another identical model drive.
(I still have Maxtor EIDE ATA133 HDD’s with spare pcb’s should they develop an issue. They actually STILL work without any bearing noise after hosting Windows 98SE, 2k and XP all those years back) Now that’s what I call recycling!

Having an external multipurpose HDD ATA/SATA drive reader comes in handy for older ATA drives when some need to access/ recover old data they forgot to backup or transfer to newer devices.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Kathy Stevens

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I wonder how many here are “pieces and parts” packrats?

I’ll be the first to raise my hand.

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Cybertooth

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I used to be, but I have moved too often to keep it up. This is both good and bad, but mainly good.

cheers, Paul

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me too!

I’ve got lots of different parts, cables, etc. left over from various jobs I’ve done or for things I’ve either upgraded/repaired over the years.

Including a bunch of old stuff like IC sockets.

And some of the chips/CPUs that when in them.

I really ought to go thru it all and get rid of some of it but just can’t bring myself to do it.

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Microfix

We are in the process of retiring a 500 GB Maxtor One Touch III that contains files dating from the early 2000’s.

Yes we are (now were) pack rats who have decided to clean house. HHDs, Mice, keyboards, cables, computers, transformers, etc.

And there are computers – a Sony Vaio PCV-RS430G (2003), IBM ThinkPad T40 (2004), two Lenovo E20s (4222-67U) (2010), Lenovo ThinkPad® Edge (0578-A99) Laptop (2011), HP Envy Desktop – 795-0050 (3LA27AA#ABA)  Tower (2019), etc.

All now it is all heading to the recycle bin due, in part, to the end of life of Windows 10.

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Acronis True Image for Western Digital was unable to wipe the Maxtor One Touch III drive (mentioned above) using the U.S. Standard, DOD 5220.22-M destruction method.

We are now reformatting the drive using the Full Format option.

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Cybertooth

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@Kathy, since Seagate purchased Maxtor several years ago, I wonder if Acronis True Image for Seagate would be able to wipe the drive using the same method.

Win 7 SP1 Home Premium 64-bit; Office 2010; Group B (SaS); Former 'Tech Weenie'

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Kathy Stevens

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The drive was formatted and then destroyed by drilling more than 20 large holes through the thing.

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SueW

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A single write of random data is all you need. DOD patterns are serious overkill.

cheers, Paul

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Kathy Stevens

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The quickest and easiest method to prevent the data from being accessed is, first completely encrypt the entire contents of the drive, then do a full format to erase it.

This will allow the drive to be reused and, if someone tries to access the data and does “somehow” manage to do so, what they’ll get is total gibberish without the decryption key (which they won’t have!)

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Kathy Stevens, RetiredGeek

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Cryptoshredding or physical drive shredding/degaussing those drives will work for you. No need to buy any software:

You can use something like Veracrypt or Bitlocker via a hard drive docking station will work. Encrypt them with a strong key and then delete it. You could also use something like ShredOS but you’d have to do each one and it might be slower.

https://github.com/PartialVolume/shredos.x86_64

Or contact a hardware recycle company, most of them will physically degauss or shred the drives at a small cost.

 

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Kathy Stevens

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It’s hard with a spinning disk, but I like to make it hard for the cia and open the drive and cut the platter all the way through a number of times.

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Kathy Stevens

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a wrote:

but I like to make it hard for the cia

Interesting, for what and why would the CIA be interested in your old HDD?
They already have enough info on you from back then, right now and foreseeable future.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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We have now completed our drive cleanup and disposal project.

The effort grew from simply disposing of 15+ hard drives to include the discarding of hundreds of 3.5-inch floppy drives. The cleanup did not involve SSDs.

The method used to prepare the hard drives for disposal involved:

• Copying all files on a drive to a 4TB WD BLACK P10 Game Drives,
• Formatting the drive (not a quick format),
• Running Acronis DriveCleaner using the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard option,
• Removing the pins from the 7-pin data and 15-pin power connectors using a pair of needle nose pliers,
• Removing the circuit board from the drive and breaking it into pieces,
• Removing the printed-circuit cables connected to the read-write heads, then
• Hitting each drive a couple of times with a rock hammer.

The 3.5-inch floppy drive program was relatively simple.  Data on the drives was from the late 1990s and early 2000. None of the data on the floppy drives was sensitive and most was the result of work done for government agencies and thus part of the “public record.”

In the case of the floppy drives that were still readable data was transferred to a 4TB WD BLACK P10 Game Drive using a Chuanganzhuo Floppy Disk Reader and the disks thrown into a garbage can for ultimate disposal at the dump.

The 3.5-inch floppy drive program was interesting in that a number of program disks were included in the mix: DOS, Lotus Notes, WordPerfect, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Office. All dating from the late 1980’s

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SueW, satrow

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Of course one part of security is not letting people know you have something worth having.

Was it fun with the hammer??

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Wavy

Two points.

Other than the AskWoody community we did not let anyone know that we were getting rid of the drives.  In addition, anyone who wanted to reclaim them from the garbage had to sort through a bag of used kitty litter to get them.

The hammer was more fun than trying to drill holes in the hard drives.  We tried drilling holes in the things by clamping then to the table of a drill press and drilling the holes.  Problem was that we were unable to tighten the clamps tight enough to prevent the drives from spinning wildly out of control.

And yes, it was fun working with the rock hammer.  Using my rock hammer brought back memories of the time when I was employed as an exploration geologist looking for cooper deposits in remote areas of Canada, western and northern Maine, Zambia, and other out of the way places.

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

In addition, anyone who wanted to reclaim them from the garbage had to sort through a bag of used kitty litter to get them.

ROTFL

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Problem was that we were unable to tighten the clamps tight enough to prevent the drives from spinning wildly out of control.

FYI I worked in a machine shop, machinists told me the drill press was the most dangerous machine in the shop. Looks easy to understand and use so folk less nervous about using it and less cautious. Not clamping sufficiently can cause the launch of a high speed projectile. Always clamp properly and wear eye protection.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Kathy Stevens

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wavey

You are correct, after me the drill press is the most dangerous machine in our shop. That is why I moved from the press to the rock hammer.

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All drill presses should come standard with one of these.

cheers, Paul

 

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wavy, Kathy Stevens

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And bolts to clamp it down!

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Our archive project has now been completed.

In addition to hard drives we recovered data from hundreds of “floppy drives” and CD/DVDs.

As it stands now, we have recovered/archived 2.61 TB of data some dating back to the 1980s.

Data destruction was easy on the “floppy drives” we simply punched holes in the media.

CD/DVDs were run through a high quality Fellows shredder.

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19 posts!  Some really great answers and ancillary information from the denizens herein.  Also a couple of great lines for the water cooler.

Makes me sorta sad I stopped doing this stuff for so long, but now I’m back and re-learning most of what I seem to have forgotten in the interim.

Thanks to all for the edumificative information.

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