Is drilling into a hard drive an effective way to destroy the data on it?

Answer 1

The best way is to either, A. Take a welding torch to it and melt it into oblivion. or B. Take a screw driver, undo everything, smash all the smashable parts, and burn the burn parts, dig a hole about 5 ft deep, throw the metal parts in, then bury it. If your afraid of the communists...I mean the FBI or government for those still blinded by the lies...I would do one of those.

Answer 2

Not really. It just damages it, but doesn't really destroy the data. Some the data does get destroyed or corrupted (i.e. stuff saved on the disk where the holes are) But, if you have enough patients, you can recover the files.

Easiest fix would be either use a delete disk program that deletes everything, (but you have to worry about undelete software being able to retrieve it.) So my best peive of advice it this.

Find you a really large magnet. Pass the hard drive close to it. This will destroy absolutely all files. Good luck finding a magnet.

Answer 3

No. Download some sort of a kill disk program and run it using DoD standards. That is all you need to do really. Most IT companies drill them or just remove the platters and think that the data is safe, but if someone with a lot of money and great knowledge in hdd recovery gets their hands on those platters, a lot of data can still be recovered.

Answer 4

That only removes the data on the parts where there are holes. If someone has a "customized" reader, thy can extract the data. Better use a data shredder program, fill the drive back up with junk, and smash it with a hammer and throw it into a fire or acid and scatter the parts around the world.

Answer 5

Yes, that will deter just about everyone. BUT if someone really wanted to, they could rebuild it and retrieve most of your data. Researchers have done it. To further secure your data from capture, try wiping it first with a disk eraser or wiper. They overwrite the data on the disk first several times (at least 3 passes) to ensure the previous data cannot be read. Then you can destroy it if you want.

Answer 6

It would only destry the data where u drilled the hole. It would be very difficult to extract the data, but it could be done with special equipment. I take it that you didnt want to use the hard drive ever again? Take the hard drive apart and scratch up the mirror surface. That would remove all data.

Answer 7

Some data will be destroyed but not all.

A sander (or manual use of sandpaper) would do a better job because it permanently removes the surface layers of the disk .... this is where the data is stored ... on a thin surface layer.

Be sure to sand both sides of each disk.

regards,
Philip T

Answer 8

It is if you drill a hole in every place of the hard drive's platter which is just the same as shredding it. All you have to do is take it to a computer repair shop or download some disk erasing software to do the work.

Answer 9

yep ... drill about 10 holes all the way through in many places ... they make great paper weights

Answer 10

yeah .. unlessthe fbi gets hold of it and u have somthing illegal on there ... in which case u may want to do more to destroy the actual platters inside ... beat it with a hammer or somthing ...