How to erase hard drive on a dead computer?

Question

My computer recently died. I'd like to make sure to erase the hard drive before getting rid of it but I can't get it to start any more. Any advice on how to clean the HD without being able to boot up the computer? thanks

Answer 1

The only way to completely erase a drive is to take the disks out and destroy them with a hammer or in an incinerator.
Formatting the drive will only erase the header information on the sectors, the data will remain intact. There are specialist commercial companies that can recover data from hard disks under all kinds of situations. You would be surprised.

Answer 2

The question is what do you want to do? If you want to uninstall software or delete files from the computer, then just go to programs and choose the ones you want to uninstall or go to the files that you don't need anymore and delete them. You could run a program that cleans up the computer after doing this to help some more. If you want to clean your entire system and start from scratch, then backup anything you want to keep on a JumpDrive, not CDR as they can get scratched and limit you to just 700MB on a CDR and are not reusuable and CDRW have to be reformatted if it is full. Format the hard drive which for all purposes is not recoverable (forensically, it really is recoverable and just formatting is not safe if you are discarding the drive). Install the operating system and programs and drivers that you are going to use and put the files back that you backedup on the flash drive. If you want to make everything unrecoverable at all and short of demagnetizing the drive, then use Darik's Boot and Nuke and try DoS level security.

Answer 3

If the computer is dead, you will need to remove the hard drive, and put it into another computer to erase it.

If it is an old crappy drive, and you don't need it anymore, just hit it with a hammer a few times until the case cracks open, and use the platter as a frisbee.

It's kinda neat to see the inside of one if you haven't before. Plus very few people have the expertise to read one once its been taken apart -- in case you were worried about someone else getting your data.

Answer 4

If you need the drive then take it out of the old computer and put it as a secondary drive in another computer and wipe it clean. If you don't need the drive just destroy it with a magnet.

Answer 5

Put the drive into another computer as a secondary drive. Install AVG Antispyware. Click tools up on the top, then the shredder tab. Drag everything in that old hard drive into the shredder window. Wait until finished and viola. Clean Hard drive... oh. Reformat it afterwards too.

If you don't care about leaving it intact, get a blendtec blender.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H29jU8Wrs&mode=related&search=

Answer 6

If the machine's dead I'd be inclined to physically remove the hard-drive and destroy the disk platters. I find a lump hammer or axe works wonders. Feels nice, too!

Answer 7

It is 3 by 4 by 3/4 inches. Remove it with a screwdriver and keep it in a safe place, bury it in the back yard, smash it with a large rock. or install it as a second drive in your new machine. Remember to check the jumper setting to secondary before doing that.

Answer 8

Put it another working computer and format it. Or destroy the HD and get another one.

John
A+ Certified

Answer 9

Computer can not die. It is not a single piece of hardware.Only some of its parts may cease to function properly. So easiest way is to connect its parts to another computer so that you can test if they are working, and you can replace the faulty part to make it work again.
motherboard, processor, RAM, lan card, sound card, display adapter all of these parts function separately and can be replaced if found faulty. You can format your hard disk by connecting it to another computer as a slave disk.

Answer 10

You can take the hard drive out of the computer and put it in another computer that does run, and wipe it that way