Where to safely dispose of old computer hard drives? (Raleigh: disposing, linear)

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

I have a few old and broken computers collecting dust in my garage. They are very old so nothing worth donating. There may be some old banking and family photos on them. Nothing I need to recover, but would also prefer not having my banking info out there to be found and recovered by somebody else. I don't really have the tools to drill into hard drives to destroy them and was wondering what the best and safest option is in Raleigh to dispose of this equipment and make sure my information is destroyed?

[zinner]

You could DOD wipe them with software. That would render them useless and what a recycling facility would do. It takes a lot of time ,but it's set and forget till it's done.

[Sal_M]

I have a friend in IT who told me to hit mine with a hammer a few times until it sounds like a baby rattle inside, then it would be impossible to get anything off it.

[m378]

The Kramden Institute is a good cause in Durham that will take them and wipe them. If you trust them to do it, it's a good option.

[hertfordshire]

It just takes a screwdriver to open up the computer and pull the hard drive. Then a hammer to shatter the "disk" portion.

[leastprime]

I scavenge the rare earth magnets from the linear motor. They are extremely strong.

[don6170]

Originally Posted by m378

The Kramden Institute is a good cause in Durham that will take them and wipe them. If you trust them to do it, it's a good option.

I have volunteered and donated to Kramden. Good folks there.

If you decide to take a hammer/drill to the disks, they and the rest of the computer can be recycled at select Wake County sites (weekends only).
https://www.wakegov.com/departments-...aste-recycling

[bobspez]

Originally Posted by North_Raleigh_Guy

I have a few old and broken computers collecting dust in my garage. They are very old so nothing worth donating. There may be some old banking and family photos on them. Nothing I need to recover, but would also prefer not having my banking info out there to be found and recovered by somebody else. I don't really have the tools to drill into hard drives to destroy them and was wondering what the best and safest option is in Raleigh to dispose of this equipment and make sure my information is destroyed?

You can just remove them from the computer and drive a large nail through the case. Once the glass disks inside the case are broken, they can't be recovered.

[cheapdad00]

Just make sure you have no Crypto account information on them (from when coins were worth much less than they are today), lots of stories of people who would have several $100k-$MM in crypto today based on early mining certain coins which were not mainstream 5-10 years ago. Usually the accounts are on a password protected/encrypted drive where person forgot the password.

[NYC2RDU]

To be clear, damaged hard drives are not unreadable, even if you smash it with a hammer or drive a nail through it. However, the amount of effort required to salvage something from a physically damaged hard drive is exceptional and so makes it highly unlikely. I would suggest the hammer approach myself, and also disposing of the hard drive separately from the CPU itself. The odds that someone will pick the hard drive out of the pile and know what to do with it is so low that it doesn't pay to worry about it. And unless you're a high value target, even if they did read some of it, what exactly are they going to find?