Hard Drive – How to Destroy a Hard Disk

hard drive

I have an old hard disk (Maxtor 250Gb) from about 3 years ago that started giving errors and now sits in a draw in my desk. It has some confidential data on it but it's unlikely that it can be read because the disk started to go bad. However, before I dispose of it I want to make sure that the data can't be recovered by destroying the disk.

What is the best way to destroy the disk such that the data can't be read? (I live in Arizona and was thinking of leaving it in the yard when we have those 125 F days…?)

What is the best way to dispose of the disk after it's destroyed? (I believe that it's environmentally unsound to chuck it in the trash.)

Best Answer

If you are looking for standard procedures and reliable methods, you could read the Guidelines for Media Sanitization (PDF) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

For any given medium, there are three basic methods:

  • Clear
  • Purge
  • Physical Destruction

For hard drives they recommend:

Clear:

Overwrite media by using agency-approved and validated overwriting technologies/methods/tools.

Physical Destruction:

  • Disintegrate
  • Shred
  • Pulverize
  • Incinerate: incinerate hard disk drives by burning the hard disk drives in a licensed incinerator.

Purge:

  1. Purge using Secure Erase. The Secure Erase software can be downloaded from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) CMRR site.
  2. Purge hard disk drives by either purging the hard disk drive in an NSA/CSS-approved automatic degausser or by disassembling the hard disk drive and purging the enclosed platters with an NSA/CSS-approved degaussing wand.
  3. Purge media by using agency-approved and validated purge technologies/tools.

Recommendations for flash media (SSDs) are similar, except that degaussing solid state drives is not a viable way to purge them as the data is not stored on magnetic platters.

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