Floppy recovery

[Paul Berger]

On 2016-01-07 3:50 PM, Mike Stein wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin at xenosoft.com>
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2016 1:58 PM
> Subject: Re: Floppy recovery
>
>
>>>> I've heard that there are "standards" for a number of overwrites, and
>>>>   what patterns to use, . . .
>> On Thu, 7 Jan 2016, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>>> The paper that got the most notice was from Peter Gutmann from the early 90s.
>>> https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html
>> Thank you!
>>
>> That answers most of our ignorant questions.
>>
>>
>> I wonder what the cost is to do those techniques.
>>
> Well, if you don't have access to thermite or even a large sledgehammer then this recommendation of his might be a cost-effective solution:
>
> http://www.diskstroyer.com/Home.html
>
> Even if you do have that sledgehammer this might be useful as a preprocessing step before final treatment with the aforementioned hammer.
>
> I'm fortunate in already having some of the tools in this kit and some experience in their use and I can highly recommend this technique, not only for data destruction but also for relaxation and a source of various unique parts.
>
> I wonder how many of those clocks made from HD platters contain sensitive information; definitely something else to worry about...
>
> ;-)
With modern disks that have glass platters two techniques I have used are:

1. Drive a center punch trough the lid, there are usually convenient 
holes covered with labels to make it easy if you don't want to drive it 
through the metal.
2. Slam the drive down hard and flat on a cement floor when the drive 
sounds like a maraca you are done.

The first is a little more sure as you will almost always shatter all 
the platter in one go.

Paul.