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Old 09-26-2011, 08:01 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
4,760 posts, read 13,827,101 times
Reputation: 3280

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My house is starting to look like a tech graveyard. I have several old computers and scanners that have sensitive information on the hard drives. Some of the machines are operable and some of them are not.

Is there somewhere I can take these and be sure they are destroyed? I don't own a sledgehammer, although if buying one is the best solution, I suppose I could obtain one.
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Old 09-26-2011, 08:17 AM
 
98 posts, read 310,196 times
Reputation: 88
Pull the hard drives out of the machines. Get some strong nails and hammer them through the drives or sledgehammer them. Throw the drives away. It's not elegant, but it should work. I do not leave hard drives in machines under any circumstances when I am getting rid of them. Find a recycling center to get rid of the old machines without the drives:

Earth911.com - Find Recycling Centers and Learn How To Recycle
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Old 09-26-2011, 08:24 AM
 
Location: Charleston Sc and Western NC
9,273 posts, read 26,496,019 times
Reputation: 4741
Hammer does the job on the hard drive, put them in your household trash after they've been destroyed. Take the old CPU to the Electronics Dump on WestPark where they will tai it right out of the trunk of the car for you
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Old 09-26-2011, 08:31 AM
 
Location: Clear Lake, Houston TX
8,376 posts, read 30,702,433 times
Reputation: 4720
Doesn't Norton Utilities have some sort of "government wipe" thing?

Otherwise I'd open the casing of the hard drives to make sure the platters are destroyed.
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Old 09-26-2011, 08:33 AM
 
Location: Where nothing ever grows. No rain or rivers flow, Texas
1,085 posts, read 1,581,344 times
Reputation: 468
clorox would clean that
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Old 09-26-2011, 08:37 AM
 
32 posts, read 74,729 times
Reputation: 20
This would be the ultimate way to go. I'd like to see someone try restoring this.

SSI's Shred of the Month: E-Scrap - Hard Drives Shredding (Q) - YouTube
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Old 09-26-2011, 08:39 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
4,760 posts, read 13,827,101 times
Reputation: 3280
Quote:
Originally Posted by lonestarwvu View Post
Thank you for this link. It helped me discover that Best Buy near my house recycles most electronics:

Recycling

I will follow everyone's advice above to destroy the hard drives and then take the remains of the machines to Best Buy. Thanks, all!
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Old 09-26-2011, 09:00 AM
 
Location: Clear Lake Area
2,075 posts, read 4,446,614 times
Reputation: 1974
A cordless drill with a drill bit is much easier than hammering nails.
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Old 09-26-2011, 09:27 AM
 
98 posts, read 310,196 times
Reputation: 88
There are people who will debate whether any utility can "wipe" a hard drive completely. Drilling holes in the hard drive does not destroy the data left in the spaces between the holes. Neither do nails, but the violence of the impact is going to have a greater effect on the platter. If you really really care sledgehammer them.
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Old 09-26-2011, 10:09 AM
 
Location: Fulshear
1,326 posts, read 3,451,717 times
Reputation: 1184
Use Dban to wipe out the hard drives on the operable computers and sell them on ebay.
You could also try selling the inoperable computers on ebay as well.
Plenty of people out there would still buy for the parts.
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