How to properly destroy a hard drive - Tip Tuesday: Episode  

LOL!

My Seagate lasted for 15 years

Seagate Sucks

Gone through 4 of those, can confirm none lasted over 3 years

My Seagate hard drive still working after 12 years

I should have Googled about Best Buys in Canada before I filmed this! =D 100 hard drives a day -- yikes!! How often did you go through drill bits??

Do you get bad luck like if you destroy a mirror? I mean its made of glass and it reflects stuff

@@armandasm3810 I believe I'd have worse luck if someone retrieved bank details from a hard drive!

Ha! I appreciate that! Glad to helped you. =)

Thanks so much for the feedback, Will! Glad it helped you. =)

Would you recommend a specific drill or drill bit to get through a 3.5mm HDD internal/external really quickly or will any metal drill bit and drill do the job? Thanks

Drilling through metal requires more force and power than drilling through wood, but as long as you have a drill bit made for metal and a moderately powerful drill, you're all set. Corded drills and those powered by lithium-ion tend to have more oomph than the cheaper NiMH models.

esquire eventrade i used a drill bit for drilling steel. They are specifically designed for to be used at low speed so don't make the mistake of drilling it like you would timber. Nice and slow and you'll be through it in no time and hearing that reassuring rattle 👍🏻 Hope that helps buddy

Thanks a lot guys this helps!

That... is solid advice!

@@ChrisBryantVideo I learned the hard way!!!

lmao soyboy, you're just weak if you can't handle a knockback of a drill

Seriously it's 18V, It can catch all it wants, it's has never moved my arm more than 1cm. Even if it was powered by mains, if you hold it like a man, either the drillbit will break, it will get unstuck or the engine will run out of torque before moving my arm much.

I assume it's technically possible that after wiping the drive and drilling, that something MIGHT be able to be removed, although the number of places in the world are likely in the single digits. If you want to be extra careful with your stuff, really go to town physically destroying the platter inside the drive.

As usual my only concern is the safety and security for commercial secrets.

Remove the platters and sand them down to nothing

Hey, Jason! The more holes the better you can sleep at night. A drill is a little bit messy, but it'll be easier and more effective than a screw. Plus, starting the screw on the metal of the housing could be difficult. If you have a screw driver that will unscrew what's holding together the hard drive enclosure, you can also do that. It's a little more work, but then you would get to the platter itself, where you could even use scissors to slice it up if it's an aluminum one. =)

If no important data yes. If you think there's some data you might want to remove the hard drives and open them or have someone open them and destroy the platters. Being that they are old computers, if found someone might want to see whats in them. Best remove the hard drives completely. Cheers

Glad it was helpful!

Great question, and yes - technically data (although a lot less) is stored on your computer's RAM. Not a bad idea to smash those chips, now that you mention it.

Also a good idea!

damn bruh what are you tryna hide? FBI check on this man

@@memesupreme2400😂

Lol that'd stupid it's beyound repair when completely destroyed like that anyway I mean the circuit board on the back is easy to destroy but can be replaced best choice of action is to melt the thing entirely

Hard drives are not hazardous waste. They are just metal and glass

Glad to hear it, Dana. =)

but u can still recover data from it

I've totally done it, only because I heard it made for a cool little light show (just put down a paper towel under it so it doesn't leave burn marks on your microwave plate -- ha ha! Oh, and only do it for about 10 seconds). =) I should have blurred the naked hard drive... I guess that makes this video NSFW. ;)

Well it *can* be recovered 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@@pampadeb3188 technically maybe, but I dont think anyone who has a life would care to recover a bunch of steged files off something that was formerly known as a Seagate barracuda 250

@@adithyanv9329 just joked😉

@@adithyanv9329 feds would lel

It does. But it has to be industrial type of magnet. Some companies offer hard disk clearance service using magnetic machine.

Check out this image of a drive without the cover, and it will give you a great idea where to drill: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#/media/File:Laptop-hard-drive-exposed.jpg

Drill it all over, come on u really had to ask

Oh great! Thanks! My local Staples is MUCH closer than the nearest Best Buy, so that works out well! =D

Ok FBI

But whos to say there isnt a crook that works at Staples that could grab it before it was destroyed, crooks work everywhere, even cops

Ya gotta have fun. =D

Hey, man. The hard drive wipe is a "nice to have" but if you drill the platter, you'll be good to go. The more holes you drill, the less chance of data recovery, so go to town. =D

Thanks. I'm going to drill holes until all that remains are holes, and nothing else ;)

Contact Apple/Microsoft/whatever company made your laptop's support team.

Absolutely.

Nice!!

Did you even watch the video?

@@ReviewBlogVlog lol

6ft hole with a lead cage lol

So glad you liked it -- thanks for watching! =)

Great video indeed and will follow your instructions , thank you ( from Liverpool UK )

I've made wind chimes out of them in the past. They ring beautifully.

Sounds like it was a laptop, right? If the drive sounded like it shattered, you had a glass drive and you did in fact shatter it (like the one in the video). I wouldn't lose sleep if you couldn't do the "soft" data wipe with the Boot & Nuke - that drive platter is toast. No need to drill ALL the way through it, you only need to assassinate that data platter. Thanks for watching! =D

@@ChrisBryantVideo Hi Chris! Very nice of you to take the time. Still wondering what a Boot & Nuke is. It was my mini desktop that the repair tech said was not worth fixing, so I bought another desktop. Is the Boot & Nuke part of it because an internal chip that stores all your data and activity etc. My computer was a "business grade" one that was from when a company changed to new computers, so does that have even more uncontrolled storage than a normal consumer grade computer? Thanks!! I liked and subscribed too!

That is good additional information. =D Not sure why I grabbed that one instead of my drill bit for metal.

100% correct. =D

Nah it doesn’t. People tried this at DEFCON and all it did was just melt the outer case and leave platters intact.

If you can easily get to the platter, that'd work as well. The only thing is that many hard drives have SUPER small screws, and getting it open can be a royal pain. If you've got the tools to crack it open, go for it! =)

That would work - the digital wiping is just a redundancy to help stand by that 0% chance of recovery claim. =) Some sandpaper on the platter wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

Take a look at the drive to see what kind of screws are holding it together, then find the absolute smallest screwdriver that fits (Philips or flat head). Chances are pretty good you will have a tough time, but if it's an older drive it could be doable. Just make sure to apply good pressure on the back on the screwdriver as you get the screw started, to lower the chance you'll strip it. If you start to strip it even a little, stop. If it's stripped, it will be next to impossible to open up.

Staples will recycle your electronics for free

Never understood that, if you want people to recycle stuff instead of throwing it into the woods or a lake then shouldn't you do that for free?

Laptop hard drives tend to be made of glass, but even then if you want a 0% chance of recovery, it's always a good idea to take the steps shown here.

That... is a good question. I would assume yes, but I'd call ahead and confirm.

melt it at home

Sure, man! 1) Once you have everything off the drive that you'll need, download Darik's Boot & Nuke software (DBAN.org). Run that on the drive to do a deep, solid wipe of the data. 2) Remove the physical drive from your computer (you'll see what it looks like at 2:31) 3) Destroy the platter inside that holds the data. You can do this with a drill and run it through in a few places, or open the drive up and destroy it that way. Hope that helps you, Daniel!

None of your data does, just stuff from the operating system. That operating system data is the same for anyone who has the same OS as you.

This is absolutely an option - just expect to get a lot less for the computer without a drive (and thus no operating system/way for it to turn on). You could also recycle the computer without the hard drive as well - you just now have the HDD to either hang on to indefinitely, or to destroy at a later date.

99.9% of the people who are interested in your old drives don't have the tools or skills to recover anything from that one. If you're worried about what a government or law enforcement might do with it, you're better off making sure it's never found.

ok then what you can do is take the platter out and crush it with a hammer or a rock and then throw random pieces in random holes or a lake thats how to destroy a hard drive

Forensic data recovery agents? wow, how about don't murder people and you won't have to worry about it lol.

@@Secret-Serenity Seriously, all that's on there is the personal info of a broke loser and maybe some anime smut, not the details of an underground hitman organization.

@@teamlan3248 the proper way to destroy it is to launch a tactical nuke at it

woodcutter, is that you? blue spruce is 118 ft and still growing. owls are roosting in the lower branches. we need you to pick up a pine cone.

Just watch out for a ricochet. ;)

@@ChrisBryantVideo meh, hard drives arent thick enough to stop a bullet, he'll be fine

Oh no! Ouch. Yeah, clamps are worth their weight in gold.

LOL! Kickin' it old school over here.

LOL! Glad I could help. =D

That's true. However, it won't spin with those holes (assuming it's an aluminum platter -- if it's ceramic it has shattered), and which is why I also recommend to use the software to remove the data as well. =)

yeah, they don't spin the platter when they extract the data

Hardware exists to do that, but it's very uncommon -- you'd also need to be in a Class 1 Clean Room to have the platter out of the case, as even a little bit of dust can cause serious read errors. The drill bit will also fray the edges around the holes, and I'm not aware of a head that can read platters from a distance like that. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but just saying that between the wipe of the data and putting in a few holes, you really are good to go. If anyone has reliable info that an aluminum platter can be read after a few holes have been punched through it with a drill bit, I'll eat my hat. =D

Dennis had a valid point - you really only destroyed the data in those drilled places. Anyone, who's serious about recovering that data, will not "spin this drive" - they will send it to the most affordable data recovery lab they can find, which for around $1000-$8000, depending on damage done, will recover all or most of the remaining data, by reading the plates micrometer by micrometer with a specialized reader. And if you drilled it like in this video, that would be something like 99% of the data recoverable... There are better ways - open the hard drive, take the plates out (glass or aluminum, it won't matter) and: 1) My favorite - subject the plates to the hottest fire you can create. Any gas burner will do, like propane/butane (500+ C), but so will an intense wood/coal fire. The goal is to make the plates glow red-hot. That will erase all the data, as the intense heat will demagnetize the ENTIRE surface. 2) My second favorite - dip the plates into a strong acid (sulfuric/battery acid will do just fine) for a couple of days, in open air. There will be nothing left from the magnetic coating, as its ingredients are mostly metal alloy deposits and will happily react with a strong acid. Wanna be extra-sure? After that "treatment", wash it with water and soak it into a strong base for another few days. Good luck recovering a single byte of information reliably from a surface like that. Note, that both methods attack the entire surface of the plates: #1 attacks it at a physical level, #2 at a chemical level. Best would be #1, due to it's efficiency - if you have a gas burner (or a propane torch or something similar and they are fairly cheap), the entire "cooking" procedure takes less than 10 minutes, whereas destroying the coating chemically will take many hours. No-one will recover a single file reliably from a plate treated like that. Again, this is to protect REALLY sensitive data, which if breached, could cause WAY more financial damage, than the cost of the recovery.

it'll spin just fine. The platters shattered when the drill bit hit them. That's the rice sound when he moves the hard drive around. The bit doesn't put a hole in the platter; it shatters the glass platter. As to data recovery, yes, the platter has to be spinning, and a read head has to be able to scan across the entire surface. Failing that, the drive is unreadable. It's not like they just take the platters out and read them under a microscope like a news paper.

LOL!!

Good question! If it's an aluminum platter (which won't shatter like a glass one), it's better safe than sorry. If you punch a few holes in it but don't hardcore wipe the data, it's technically still possible to pull off some of the info. If you know for sure it's a ceramic platter before you start drilling, you could theoretically skip the DBAN wipe. In any case, I wanted to make sure the advice in the video stood up to my claim of "0% chance of recovery." =D

Thank you for answering my question.

Of course!

Don't forget the high speed camera to capture those tools in action, destroying the drive! =D

@@joeylawn36111 RPG? Nuke?

Stop this 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@@enzopedreira4640 no the proper way to destroy hard drives is to launch them into the sun

how do you get a round of C4

That won't be very effective, because Drano was specifically designed to remove and break up clogs, while not being corrosive to metal or plastic (their thinking was to not damage the pipes it'd be poured into).

Why yes, that works, too. =D

Yup - with the right type of platter, that'll do it! =)

@@ChrisBryantVideo yeah, that was fun until I had shards in my fingers

I hope you mean sledgehammer =D

@@ChrisBryantVideo Yes! I'm actually going to use a sledgehammer today and destroy my ancient colossal Inspiron N7110. trying to ge the hard drive out.

I would watch that.

While it'd be much more difficult to extract the data, someone who knows what they're doing (and with the right gear) could pull the data off where ever there isn't a hole. That's why I also recommend the "software" wipe as well.

Ha ha! Reminds me of the scene in Mission: Impossible 3 when Simon Pegg's character is reviewing the charred remains of the laptop hard drive. =D Thanks for the sub, my man! I'll be kick starting Season 2 in a few short weeks -- LOTS of cool stuff planned, including more gear reviews. If there's anything you'd like to see me cover, just shout!

Chris Bryant okay can't wait

You can still pull data from this.