[Buckeyephan]

Husband got a new computer and we’d like to recycle his old all-in-one that runs on Windows 10. What is the best way to wipe the hard drive? Thanks.

[vlm790]

Hammer

[Two Bills]

With old comps and laptops, I have always destroyed hard drive.
Nerds always seem to be able to recover stuff.
For peace of mind, I agree with the hammer solution.

[GpaVader]

When you mention recycle, does that mean you want to wipe the drive and give to someone else to use or take it to a recycle center for disposal? If you mean to reuse the computer, you will need to make sure you have a recovery disk so you can reinstall the OS after you wipe the drive. If you are going to scrap it, a drill will work or often times computers have a utility built in that will accomplish this as part of the Bios. You may need to contact the manufacturer to use this.

[retiredguy123]

Sledge hammer is the most foolproof method. A large one.

[Caymus]

Originally Posted by vlm790

Hammer

Did that actually work for you? I tried that in the past and was not able to cause much damage. I then took it to work and smashed it in a hydraulic press.

[Michael G.]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Sledge hammer is the most foolproof method. A large one.

How about other electronics, GPS, Cell phones, iPod??

[villagetinker]

I tend to take out the hard drive, with a suitable adapter you can plug it into a USB port and get that file that you forgot to move to the new computer....

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

How about other electronics, GPS, Cell phones, iPod??

Use a smaller hammer.

When you delete a file from a device, all you are doing is allowing the data space that the file was using to be used for another purpose, like adding another file. This is controlled by the operating system software. But, the original file that you thought you "deleted" is still there. A computer technician may be able to wipe a hard drive clean, but why risk it?

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Remove the hard drive. It's encased in a slim metal box. Fill a casserole dish or lasagna pan 3/4 with hot water and a 1/4 cup of vinegar. Submerge the hard drive in the lasagna pan. Let it sit there a couple of minutes until the water fills the spaces in the box. Sprinkle baking soda into the water, maybe 1/8 of a cup total. Let that sit there a couple of minutes. Drain the water from the pan, then pour some table syrup, or cola, or honey, or fruit punch, into the pan and dunk the hard drive in it, turning it a few times to make sure the sticky stuff gets into the box.

Your hard drive will now be completely useless to anyone, for anything other than perhaps a door stop or ant bait.

[PugMom]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Remove the hard drive. It's encased in a slim metal box. Fill a casserole dish or lasagna pan 3/4 with hot water and a 1/4 cup of vinegar. Submerge the hard drive in the lasagna pan. Let it sit there a couple of minutes until the water fills the spaces in the box. Sprinkle baking soda into the water, maybe 1/8 of a cup total. Let that sit there a couple of minutes. Drain the water from the pan, then pour some table syrup, or cola, or honey, or fruit punch, into the pan and dunk the hard drive in it, turning it a few times to make sure the sticky stuff gets into the box.

Your hard drive will now be completely useless to anyone, for anything other than perhaps a door stop or ant bait.

what a great idea! i'd have never thought of using household items to do such a thing, but makes perfect sense. i used to use bleach in a bucket of water to get rid of old bank files before the days of PC's & shredders

[Velvet]

Get a hard drive eraser dvd from Amazon, not expensive, run it twice (sometimes it allows only once) - you’ll have a usable but unrecoverable previous data drive. Back up your drive first, you’ll never recover anything afterwards.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Velvet

Get a hard drive eraser dvd from Amazon, not expensive, run it twice (sometimes it allows only once) - you’ll have a usable but unrecoverable previous data drive. Back up your drive first, you’ll never recover anything afterwards.

Many computers today don't have a disc drive.

[daniel200]

Another solution: Take a ¼ inch drill and make a couple of holes in the drive.

[Velvet]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Many computers today don't have a disc drive.

True, I use an external disc drive - how do you play dvds? I suppose you can drown the thing too.