2007-01-10 01:11:04 · 15 answers · asked by In Honor of Moja 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Take the drive apart and bend the disks. Unless the NSA is after you, that will deter pretty much anybody from trying to retrieve data.
-Dio
2007-01-10 01:15:29 · answer #1 · answered by diogenese19348 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Disable it? Why do you need to do that? It'll disable itself after no time at all once it lands in a pile of crap at the dump... and does anyone really go around rubbish tips finding old hard drives, trying to extract data from them?
2007-01-10 09:16:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I heard its best to get a good drill and drill holes in it many many many times! If not get a hammer and a nail gun. Fire away! If you can take it out to a shooting range. Is their a way to open it and expose it to heat and fire? Without toxifying up the nature surrounding it.
The computer box outer casing may of be help to some organization who rebuilds computers.
2007-01-10 09:21:15 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Reformat it, or if possible do a low-level format. This will ensure that all personal information is wiped off the drive. Clever people will be able to recover files from a hard drive that just had a standard reformat, so be careful.
2007-01-10 09:15:43 · answer #4 · answered by Pfo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you want to disable it so that no one can steal information off of it, the best way is to just smash it with a hammer. I actually read that on AOL a while back, sounds funny but it works =)
2007-01-10 09:15:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Physical, mechanical destruction works best. (Can you say "hammer"?)
But another really fun way to get rid of a hard drive is to pull the discs out of it and stick the discs in the microwave. Pretty sparks!
2007-01-10 09:20:51 · answer #6 · answered by Chip 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if u mean ur tossing the harddrive too and dont want anyone to view whats on it. then smash it with hammer. if u are wanting to keep hard drive and toss rest of comp, just open the box cover and unplug hard drive.
2007-01-10 09:15:31 · answer #7 · answered by jenivive 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Blender
2007-01-10 09:18:00 · answer #8 · answered by Militant Agnostic 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can use a hard drive erase utility like DBAN http://dban.sourceforge.net Or if the PC won't power on, remove the hard drive, disassemble the hard drive and bend or break the platters. Or you can remove the hard drive and drive a large nail through it. Be sure it pierces all of the platters. Wear safety glasses.
2007-01-10 09:20:01 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Format the drive if possible (even if you have to put it in another machine first.) Then rub a magnet on it, or unscrew the hard drive and scratch up the disks that are inside.
2007-01-10 09:15:39 · answer #10 · answered by Strategic Sourcing Expert 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Drill through the hard disk platters. That will take care of anyone attempting to recover any of your pron. More then one hole though, make it look like a piece of swiss cheese.
2007-01-10 09:20:14 · answer #11 · answered by villanim 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋