Given all the entities that are actively trying to steal information, I am appalled at the ignorance and carelessness I see.

Near my house in the Eastern panhandle of WV, we have a recycling center that accepts electronics, including computer equipment. I like to extract old (but not too old) SATA hard drives for home grown external storage. 3.5", 2.5" laptop drives, and I have even found working commercial external drives (a 1TB, and a 2TB WD, both working). I have gotten three new-ish, functional laptops, two of which have been pressed into service.

What shocks me is the level of ignorance I see in regards to what is often found on these devices. In more than half the cases where I have recovered working HD's, they had not been wiped! One laptop was infected with virusus to the point that it could barely function; once I cleaned it up, I found it loaded with all manner of personal financial data.

If I ever recycle HD's, it is only after some light adjustments with a 16 oz. hammer. I am stupefied at how trusting some people are with this kind of sensitive stuff. Unbelievable.

I find that a HD makes an excellent target for an AR.

Yep, I pop the drives out and destroy them with a hammer and punch before disposing of them. That, or I just keep the old drives.

A rare earth magnet works too.

quote:

I am appalled at the ignorance and carelessness I see.

You would be amazed on the number of SMB's I deal with that COULD NOT CARE LESS about security.
Same password for everybody, password taped to the monitor then it just goes down hill from there.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
Yep, I pop the drives out and destroy them with a hammer and punch before disposing of them. That, or I just keep the old drives.

I have the tools (used to work at Seagate and Quantum) and the interest, so I destructively disassemble any I get rid of, partly to see what new design tricks are out there, but mostly so I can use the rare-earth voice coil magnets (carefully) to hold the data discs against my steel filing cabinet to make sure any data surviving the pre-disassembly wipe, reformat and repartition is useless.

Any that are to get donated/given away or stored for future use get DBANed.

Last month was recycle your computer day in our city. I stop in once a week to pick through what I want so I can build a semi decent computer to give away to some of the kids in our city and each and every hard drive I looked at had not been wiped.

Personally I keep all my old drives. If I do get rid of one, I take it to the range.

I've taken a drill to a few hard drives over the years.

quote:

Originally posted by jbcummings:
A rare earth magnet works too.

Like the one already in the drive?