The Homemade Hard Disk Destroyer

Barence writes "All businesses have sensitive data they need to destroy when they replace PCs, but disposing of hard disks properly can be an expensive business. This has led one IT manager in the UK to come up with his own, homemade solution — Bustadrive. It uses a powerful 'hydraulic punch' to physically deform a hard disk, rendering it virtually unreadable, and requires nothing more than a pull of the lever on the front — similar to a drinks-can crusher. PC Pro tested the Bustadrive, and also sought the opinions of data destruction companies as to whether the device was really as effective as hoped, or just a fun way to mangle a hard disk or two."

Re:Overkill?

[BobZee1]

Because using anything less than "Bustadrive" is just asking for a mocking. Come on! The only thing cooler is FIRE!!!

This is just a controlled hammer

[wjh31]

Just give the hard drive to your kid with a hammer, tell them to go nuts, come back 10 mins later with a dustpan and brush and you are sorted.

Oblig...

[rumith]

Nuke your old hard drive from the orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Re:Overkill?

[Anonymous Coward]

DBAN is good shit. I use it on my friends computers, and tell them they got a virus!

Re:7.62mm holes

[IBBoard]

7.62mm seems like an unusual size for a drill bit, and what kind of drill are you managing to use at up to 100m? Seems like a longer distance than I've seen any normal pillar drill move over.

I do agree that not removing the circuit board causes lots of debris, though, and is especially dangerous when it spins off at an angle!

Re:This is just a controlled hammer

[zygotic mitosis]

Well, if you like the kid, sure..

Re:Stand drill

[A. B3ttik]

I goes through all the platters and the circuitboard.

IM IN UR GARAGE GOES THRU UR HDDRV.

Re:Stand drill

[BenevolentP]

Whatever happened to just taking hike to closest Mt. Doom and throwing disk to molten lava hole?

Re:I'll fuck it up good.

[larry bagina]

the topic is hard drive destruction, not sex.

Re:Overkill?

[jonadab]

Because for a system administrator, paranoia is a basic job requirement. Consequently, when it comes to data security, there's no such thing as too much overkill. Even when you have subjected the drive to a thermite reaction, let it cool, and ground the whole resulting mess down to the consistency of talcum powder, you still have to scatter the ashes over at least a thousand square miles of ocean, just to be sure. Ideally, you'd scatter half the ashes over the central Pacific, some of them over the north Atlantic, and the rest over the southern ocean.

Extra bonus points if you scrub the platters with fluorine trichloride before putting it through the thermite reaction.

Even then, you'll never be fully comfortable with the job until you destroy the entire galaxy that the drive was in. Maybe the whole universe. You can't be too sure.

Re:This is just a controlled hammer

[Opportunist]

Good safety advice! Never go close to kids without protective gear.

Re:Stand drill

[damburger]

Its emotionally draining, because just before the hard drive goes into the molten metal you realise it has Learned the Value of Human Life.

Or

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Place drive in computer
2) Host website on said computer
3) Post link to website on slashdot
4) one melted drive ;)

Re:Stand drill

[value_added]

The folks in Accounting must love your expense and mileage reports.

Re:Overkill?

[ehren_m]

What's the best way to get red wine out of cotton? This guy: Thermite.

Re:Overkill?

[Scrameustache]

Even if only one technician in the entire world, with a billion-dollar lab, is capable of recovering the data from a zero'd drive, it's too much of a risk. What if that one technician is Chinese?

Oh, that's ok, my data isn't written in Chinese...

Re:Stand drill

[Scrameustache]

Dude, haven't you read the Trilogy? It takes half a book just to cross Mordor, plus there's Orcs and shit. That's way more trouble than it's worth. And have you ever tried to find Middle Earth on a map? Sure, lots of people have theories, but what with continental drift and such, it's all pretty obscure. How can you be sure the volcano you use is *really* Mount Doom in this late, degenerate age?

Because of all the Orcs and shit?

Re:Stand drill

[maxwell demon]

Well, I used to just throw the old disks into the next black hole, relying on Stephen Hawking being right that all information thrown into a black hole is gone forever. Now he says he was wrong, and all the information from my hard disks may eventually be returned from the black hole. Does anyone know if this device can also be used to destroy black holes?

Re:Overkill?

[ripnet]

Just mark the drive 'fragile' and post it via CityLink (UK courier firm)... guaranteed that THAT data wont be seen again...

Easiest, Cheapest

[Anonymous Coward]

Mail it to yourself via registered mail and then refuse deliver. Once it enters the Post Office loop, it'll never be seen again.

Re:Overkill?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then I guess all your bases are belong to us

Re:Overkill?

[Shakrai]

Beside, just reformat a few times--first with reiser, then NTFS, then another Linux format, then whatever you want to use in the end. Pretty hard to unscramble all that.

It's easy to unscramble reiser. You just have to offer it a reduced sentence in exchange for telling you where the body is ;)

Thank you, I'll be here all night....

Re:Overkill?

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly, you have never worked with humans before.

When dealing with "shiny bits of computer thingies", you could duct-tape a USB cable to a Chia Pet and people would think it's a Mac.

whiner

[rubycodez]

Ok, do that in your office and see how many minutes your job lasts once the fire's out

charred corpses don't terminate jobs

Plus, it's rather environmentally unfriendly

data processing including the manufacture and operation of hard drives is already environmentally unfriendly, and oxidizing metals is one way to get them back toward the more natural state for this world

Re:In the real world, fire is a bad solution

[steelfood]

having a cloud of smoke go up is frowned upon in most places these days.

Just do it right outside the door to your building, and blame it on the other people hanging around there.

Re:Overkill?

[cyphercell]

What if that one technician is Binese?

Re:In the real world, fire is a bad solution

[Skye16]

Bollocks.

Get cancer and you can win the Tour de France.

It's true, I saw it on the tee vee.

Re:Overkill?

[jmac_the_man]

Hey, look! The guy in charge of DRM for the MPAA posts on slashdot!

Re:This is just a controlled hammer

[egburr]

If you'd had your protective gear on in the first place, there wouldn't be a kid to go near....

Re:Overkill?

[inviolet]

[What if the one well-funded hacker who can recover the data is Chinese?]

Oh, that's ok, my data isn't written in Chinese...

Doesn't matter. They could still read images, sound recordings, schematics, spreadsheets of numbers...

Well, they COULD, except the West uses a different binary encoding scheme than the Chinese. Over here everything is written as ones and zeros, but over there everything is written as ones and zewos. And I doubt they have the technology to convert.

Re:Overkill?

[Unequivocal]

In soviet russia the chinese are you.