[Altavia]

We used to take them to a shooting range, hook them up to a 12v battery to spin up the drive, and then (from a safe distance) put a round through them. The explosion is impressive...

But this has safer options.

Top 5 Hard Drive Destruction Methods That Actually Work

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Velvet

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

I have an external DVD drive with a usb cable. I think it will play movies on my Windows 11 laptop, but when I tried to use it on my Samsung tablet, it will not play the disc. I guess it must need the Windows OS.

[Velvet]

Okay so water doesn’t work but the hammer does I’d put the drive into a couple of old pillow cases and a garbage bag, then hammer away. I have done it in the past and no - nothing explodes.

[keepsake]

Drill a hole through the drive and the platters.

Gotta say, the title pulled my mind into a totally difference direction. With the price of t.p. had to wonder.

[Ellwoodrick]

I personally have removed the drives from old computers. I then disassemble the drives. Very easy to do with a cordless drill and the correct star bit that fits the screws on the drive. Once you have the platters out of the drive they can be damaged beyond use.

As to erasing the drives so the computer can be used. As others have said there are programs that wipe the drives but you will need to reinstall the operating system. Nothing is foolproof other than destruction of the drive.

[jrzeis@tampabay.rr.com]

Reformat the drive and use it for extra storage or maybe as a backup drive. You can get an external enclosure, mount the drive in that, and use it as backup device.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by jrzeis@tampabay.rr.com

Reformat the drive and use it for extra storage or maybe as a backup drive. You can get an external enclosure, mount the drive in that, and use it as backup device.

That may have been good advice 20 years ago, but today, you can buy a 1TB portable hard drive for less than $20. You can even buy a thumb drive that will hold 1TB of data.

[Deden]

You can take it to best buy, they will delete your drive and discard your laptop, and or if you want to keep it. You can go to settings and delete or take it back to factory settings. I go to BestBuy. Good Luck.

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

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

Agree, but, if that solution does not fit your needs, any of the leaders of the Villages computer club seems more than happy to help anyone, regular member or not, they always help people individually after the meeting's major presentation, solved many problems for us in the past !

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Deden

You can take it to best buy, they will delete your drive and discard your laptop, and or if you want to keep it. You can go to settings and delete or take it back to factory settings. I go to BestBuy. Good Luck.

I doubt that is a free service. According to Windows, it can take from several minutes to several hours to wipe a hard drive, depending on the size of the hard drive.

[dadoiron]

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.

You need to break the seal. Besides that mistake the stuff your using will allow full recovery. Destroyed highly classified drives. I know.

[village dreamer]

im so glad its not about a bathroom break.......

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

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

Fact check: TRUE

[BobnBev]

2 shots from my 45ACP did the trick.

[Whitley]

From the title I thought this post was going in a different direction. I was going to suggest getting a Japanese Toilet.