Wipe hard drive

[Zonny]

Greetings folks:

We have an old computer that we're about to dispose of, and we want to
wipe the hard drive before we take it down to the electronics
recycling depot.

I know a simple format C is not generally recognized as the way to go,
as things are recoverable afterwards. Any suggestions on how to
completely wipe it, simply and inexpensively? I've never done this before!

Thanks!

Z

[orv]

if your just bringing it to a recycle depot for computers, i would say unless you have extremely confidential information on your hard drive, a plane old reformat should be fine. I dont think the people at the recycle depot will try and recover any information if its been wiped. and if its older than a P3 odds are it will go in a junk pile and they wont even attempt to recycle/fix it. once a computer is reformatted, its not very easy to recover any info that was on it before(it wipes the drive clean,) hope this helps, if your really worried.. just pop the hard drive out itself and keep it(or dispose of it, its not very big) I hope this helps =)

[ottawagurl20]

if u want to be really secure just take out the hard drive and break it.. a hammer works best cant get any information off of a broken hard drive..lol

we actualy take ours appart and scratch the heck out of every little peice thats in it and then break them (if u take it apart, just make sure u dont get ur skin cought between the magnets.. they are very powerful)

[TaraF]

Great post because we were thinking of doing the same thing! We have 3 computers sitting in our garage that need to be disposed of. How would you find a recycling depot in your city though? I will go the smashing route with our hard drives, will help with the stress anyways

[BlazingDriver]

Here you go - this site will help you locate a proper registered drop off site:

http://www.dowhatyoucan.ca/Electronics/

If you want to destroy your data the easy way is to run a strong magnet over the hard drive a few times. It will irretrievably corrupt any info on it. Formatting it would be fine also. Unless you're a pedophile or working for the CIA I don't think anyone would want to spend the time & money it would take to rebuild the files.

I work at a site that collects waste electronics. You guys would not believe what people throw away! I've seen brand new stuff, not even unwrapped. What a shame that some people are so rich and selfish that their unwanted items are simply garbage to them and they never even consider charity or helping someone less priviledged.

[Zonny]

HI all!

Here in NS, we MUST take old electronics to a recycling facility. They won't pick them up at the curb, and we even get charged a tax (hmm, I think they actually call it a levy to avoid saying they're taxing us more) on electronics when you buy them, to cover the costs of recycling. Even a $10 alarm clock will cost you an additional $3 when you buy it, a TV costs something like $25 for the recycling fee.

Because we're the environmentally friendly family we are and live our lives car-free, we must drag our item, big or small, on the bus, to get it to the recycling centre that is not anywhere near where we live.

Woops, got off on a bit of a rant there.

Anyhow, DH took care of the problem. He opened up the box, removed the hard drive, and 'wiped' it with a hammer! Thanks for the responses!

Z

[AmberLab]

LOL @ wiping it with a hammer. DH will have a laugh, since he wipes drives regularly. Are you taking it to Fader's? Quite the haul on the bus.

[Eeyah]

After seeing something on one of those Dateline type shows, just formatting doesn't removed your information, there recommendation is to remove the hard drive and either keep it or manually destroy at (as above posters have mentioned). I figure with all the identity theft and credit card fraud it's better to be safe than sorry.

[DH666]

I use Windex.


Actually, a 10 pound sledgehammer is more fun!

[BobSagget]

if your just bringing it to a recycle depot for computers, i would say unless you have extremely confidential information on your hard drive, a plane old reformat should be fine. I dont think the people at the recycle depot will try and recover any information if its been wiped. and if its older than a P3 odds are it will go in a junk pile and they wont even attempt to recycle/fix it. once a computer is reformatted, its not very easy to recover any info that was on it before(it wipes the drive clean,) hope this helps, if your really worried.. just pop the hard drive out itself and keep it(or dispose of it, its not very big) I hope this helps =)

Not really true that once a hard drive is reformatted it's hard to recover information off it. In fact it's incredibly easy.

I've reformatted tons of times and forgot to backup files off the drive before doing so. The average person would think that because the files are no longer there that they are deleted and you can never get them back, which is simply not true.

All you need is a "file recovery" program (I use Active@ Undelete), select the hard drive you wish to run the scan on and start. Depending on drive size and type of scan it can finish anywhere from 5 minutes to 8 hours.

Point is, if you haven't written over the location on the hard drive where your old files were, recovering them is very very possible. It even creates a folder for you called "Lost and Found" which displays ALL deleted files allowing you to quickly pick and choose what you want to recover.

I had bought 3 albums off itunes and lost them all cause I forgot to backup when I did a reformat. iTunes said it was my fault and if I wanted them back I'd have to buy them again.

Turns out after I ran Active@ Undelete it found ALL my purchases songs and they were back on my iTunes with a simple click of "recover files". So I didn't have to re-purchase anything.

If you are seriously paranoid about people recovering your private information (like CC, bank info, etc etc) I suggest a program called "Eraser" (can download for free from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/eras...3.exe/download)

You can use this program to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive. It takes a very long time depending on the settings you choose (i would choose the highest one which is 35 passes) but after it's finished you can be assured nothing will ever be recovered.

[Zonny]

Is Faders the one in Bayers Lake? I don't think they accept electronics. You have to bring the stuff to Clifton Street in the north end! And he had not only the tower, he had the old monitor and the speakers! LOL. When he got off the bus he was going to leave some of it on the sidewalk and come back, thinking, who cares if someone takes it? Turns out he was able to carry it all the block or so it took to get it there.

No worries Amberlab. Mistakes happen!

To tell you all again, in Halifax, there's a place in Bayers Lake that takes bottles and such, but does not take electronics. The place DH had to go on the bus was Clifton Street in the North End. He dragged a tower, a big honkin' monitor, and some speakers on the bus! While he only needed one bus, he did need to take the stuff off the bus in two loads, and considered leaving some stuff on the sidewalk while he walked the one block up to the recycling depot (thinking, if someone takes it, who cares?). But he did drag the whole load at once. Those big Costco bags are very useful!

The gist of what I had said about format C - I don't have sensitive information on my computer exactly. I don't keep credit card numbers, medical information or anything like that. However, I DO have pics of my child, various copies of my resume, emails that I've sent and received, etc. Overall, however harmless it may be, it is simply NOT stuff that I want others to have. So I wanted to have it more securely GONE than a simple format would provide. The hammer did take care of that.

Z

[AmberLab]

Crappity crap, the probs of being a mod sometimes. I hit edit on Zonny's post and meant to hit the quote button (they are beside each other).

My response to Zonny:
No, Fader's is in Sackville. I'm not aware of any other spot that accepts public electronics (well, until now). They accept other recycling too.

[travelgeek]

I'd use a hammer too. Then divide the pieces into a few separate piles, throwing out one pile into the trash each garbage day until gone.