quote:

Find an appropriately sized screwdriver and dissemble down to the platter

Just want to let you guys know I am dissapointed in this strategy. THIS is Sigforum. SHOOT it. Works every time.

quote:

Originally posted by nosticks:
I pull the hard drive and put a few 9mm rounds through it. Works for me.

I use a .308 or .223 myself. I tried a .45ACP (ball ammo) once but it didn't penetrate the platters, only the shell. Just pull the hard drive and render it unreadable with either bullets or a drill press. Then take the rest of the carcass to the electronics recycling place. The overwriting programs like DBan allegedly do as good a job as physically destroying the drive, but I've never used them so I can't speak to it personally.

I pull the hard drive, and then take it apart for the magnets. They get smaller with every generation of drive, but some drives still use some pretty studly magnets that come in handy for sticking stuff to the refrigerator, and gun safe, stud finding, or finding dropped screws in the grass (tie it to a string, and swing it over an area). The platter bearings can often be used for hobby assemblies, or just as a fidget toy.

Bob

I generally take out the hard drive and look on the city/county website to see when one of the hazardous waste facilities is open. I live in South Tampa and have driven up to Sheldon Road and Gibsonton. I usually wait until I have enough to fill up my Outback with old paint, electronics, whatever.

Tampa Hazardous Waste Brochure

Thanks again, and I'd shoot it but it's not very safe to do that here. People on people on.... Anyway very dense and very crowded.

Hammer, perhaps. As to selling an old used one, doubt it'd sell with the hardrive flattened.

dlc444, longtime no see. Maybe we oughta get another Sig Forum lunch set again. But prolly better wait till this virus dies down.

Pull the hard drive and take it to your landfill - the ones around here take computers for an extra fee. Nobody is going to want a 20 year old machine, even for free.

The easiest thing to do is to use a Mac OSX disk to open Disk Utility, erase the drive, format it, rinse/repeat:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog...pe-a-mac-hard-drive/

Nobody is going to take the effort to revive a disk that's been erased and rewritten with random data several times.

quote:

I remove the hard drive then drop the rest of the chassis at the local electronic recycling place so they can recover the metals.

^^^^^ This.

Like others, I remove the hard drive and drop off the rest for recycling. Around here, Best Buy, Office Depot, and a few other places will accept computers and other electronics for recycling. The city also has a couple of recycling centers that take them. Landfills in this area won't accept computers or monitors directly. At some point, I'll normally shoot up the hard drive.

Thanks again, folks, I think pulling the hard drive (assuming I can find it), smashing it with my biiiig hammer and recycling the rest is probably what I'll do.

bobandmikako:

That Bravo Concealment holster I got from you is probably the most comfortable AIWB I've ever had. Thanks again.

Bob

The hard drive is pretty obvious. Just Google it if you are having trouble.

Check with your local Goodwill. The Goodwill in this area collects them. If they can be repaired, they are fixed then given to families that need them. If they are not working, they remove valuable metals then scrap the rest.

I couldn't find the website for the local Goodwill but here's a link to the Goodwill about an hour away. Maybe your local Goodwill has a similar program. Link

I've never donated one, but I'd pull the hard drive before I sent it to Goodwill.

You need to ask what level of security are you after. How much trouble are people going to go to get the info off your drive? Unless you are in a position where your info is wanted by the NSA or foreign intelligence services, then simply disabling the drive by drilling a few holes through it should be more than enough.

Honestly, the easiest thing to do would be to either:

Enable FileVault and then format and reload MacOS when the drive has finished encrypting, then donate or recycle the computer.

OR

Use a program like "ActiveKill Disk" to DOD-level wipe the drive, which is fairly cheap ($40?) and then relad MacOS and donate the computer.

Shooting the drive can be fun, but it might just be easier to get rid of it if you just encrypt the drive, format and reload, and then get rid of it. Without the key for the encryption the chances that anyone can or will decrypt it for your legacy data are probably worse than the chance that a helicopter will land on your car the next time you're on the highway.

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
You need to ask what level of security are you after. How much trouble are people going to go to get the info off your drive? Unless you are in a position where your info is wanted by the NSA or foreign intelligence services, then simply disabling the drive by drilling a few holes through it should be more than enough.

This is easy as well, but again, takes the time and willingness to monkey around with opening the computer and removing the drive, etc.

Some places have the ‘collection’ at times, TV’s, computers, whatever.

I burn brush on occasion, often I throw stuff like an old computer in, later pick out the wires & metal for the trash.

On the lighter side for this, send it to Hillary Clinton with a donation to their phoney Foundation and she’ll dispose of it like she done hers.

Apparently if you live by me you just dump it behind the Kohl's department store!

I hate stupid lazy people!