How to Dismantle and Destroy a Hard Drive

I like the emotional satisfaction one can get from the use of thermite. But it seems silly to me to go through all of the tedious work of disassembly to ultimately destroy something. One strategically used sledgehammer should do the job. For those who want a more controllable method, a good TIN or carbide drill bit through the chassis and into the perfectly balanced platters seems like a good method to me.

If someone is really keen to get data off the platter even then, it can be done with a special microsope, slow but effective. Obviously the hole will be unreadable, but the rest of the data is still there.....

The heavy hammer method still works best on ANY drive.......after a DOD wipe of course if the drive is stil useable......

Either Gallagher's mallet or Maxwell's silver hammer ought to do it.

A band saw works. 10 ton press and "V" die works. Oxy-acetylene works.

The reality is; if the discs are still discs they can be read. Swap to a new body, or reader and the data recoverable.

If this forum can dismantle a cast iron bath, then surely a Hard Drive should present little difficulty?

....but look just how long it took till Kris was "free" of the bath!!

I reckon the hard disk, pro rate, will take at least a month!!!

Soak the hard drive in sulphuric acid.