How to wipe any data from old broken HDDs to resell as scrap?

[Avcoor]

How to wipe any data from old broken HDDs to resell as scrap?

 

I have 2 old HDDs that are basically dead, but one of them can still be read.
How can I clean them to erase any personal information and sell them as scrap?

[SteinerW]

smashing them is rather effective, it's what I do.

[CNY RMB]

Best way to prepare them for scraping? Smash them. Its the only very secure way to get rid of the data. See this https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/31/footage-released-guardian-editors-snowden-hard-drives-gchq

 

[Jonathan W]

3 minutes ago, Avcoor said:

How to wipe any data from old broken HDDs to resell as scrap?

 

I have 2 old HDDs that are basically dead, but one of them can still be read.
How can I clean them to erase any personal information and sell them as scrap?

I've never heard of a place that will pay for old Hard Drives..it's mostly a donation thing or places that will take them and scrap them will charge you to take them because they have to take the drive apart and separate its materials

[Mello]

Format.

[vorticalbox]

Just now, Mello said:

Format.

Then wipe white space.

[PenPoint]

http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

 

This one will work.

[SteinerW]

You can take a punch, drive it though the top of the drive, and it should shatter the platter inside.

[bgibbz]

4 minutes ago, Mello said:

Format.

Formating is absolutely NOT a way to wipe data before scrapping a drive. The data is pretty easily recoverable.

 

OP- I usually punch a whole with my drill press or just smash it with a hammer. if you can crack the platter it is basically unrecoverable.

[Avcoor]

4 minutes ago, Jonathan W said:

I've never heard of a place that will pay for old Hard Drives..it's mostly a donation thing or places that will take them and scrap them will charge you to take them because they have to take the drive apart and separate its materials

One guy is buying, probably to take apart and sell the materials. I just want to be sure that he wont have access to any personal information.

 

Both HDDs suffered a impact on transportation, one became outright inaccessible, not even showing in the device manager and the other shows up and can be accessed but you cant copy files from and to it. 

[Jonathan W]

Just now, Avcoor said:

One guy is buying, probably to take apart and sell the materials. I just want to be sure that he wont have access to any personal information.

 

Both HDDs suffered a impact on transportation, one became outright inaccessible, not even showing in the device manager and the other shows up and can be accessed but you cant copy files from and to it. 

Oh cool that you got someone to buy them. Checkout the series LTT did with FreeGeek..Luke has some tips on getting rid of data on hard drives I remember

[CNY RMB]

Just now, Avcoor said:

One guy is buying, probably to take apart and sell the materials. I just want to be sure that he wont have access to any personal information.

 

Both HDDs suffered a impact on transportation, one became outright inaccessible, not even showing in the device manager and the other shows up and can be accessed but you cant copy files from and to it. 

Meaning that they are trash. The ONLY secure way to get rid of the chance of the data ever being read is to destroy the platters. Either by shattering them, scratching them or otherwise completely destroying them. Useful tools could be: Hammer and Nail or a drill.

[NTDaws]

Smash them or do a low level format

[Jonathan W]

11 minutes ago, Dawson Wehage said:

Smash them or do a low level format

True enough

14 minutes ago, Avcoor said:

 

Theres a very low chance whoever is buying them is actually trying to get any data off them, you could just reformat the drive, fill it with useless data, then reformat it again a few times. 7 times is the recommended minimum to totally wipe data

[NTDaws]

Just now, Jonathan W said:

True enough

Theres a very low chance whoever is buying them is actually trying to get any data off them, you could just reformat the drive, fill it with useless data, then reformat it again a few times. 7 times is the recommended minimum to totally wipe data

Dejavu

[Avcoor]

59 minutes ago, Jonathan W said:

True enough

Theres a very low chance whoever is buying them is actually trying to get any data off them, you could just reformat the drive, fill it with useless data, then reformat it again a few times. 7 times is the recommended minimum to totally wipe data

Well, you never know. I'll just get a drill and break the plates then.

 

Thanks for the information, anyways!