Secure disk destruction [was Re: Floppy recovery]

[drlegendre .]

What's wrong with the "disassemble and rend with heavy hammer" approach?
Doesn't that render the platters un-readable, if done with sufficient
ardor?

On Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 5:09 PM, Stefan Skoglund (lokal <
stefan.skoglund at agj.net> wrote:

> tor 2016-01-07 klockan 15:08 -0500 skrev Mouse:
> > > Well, if you don't have access to thermite [...]
> >
> > Actually, red heat is well above the Curie temperature for most media,
> > isn't it?  You could chuck the platters into the coals of a bonfire,
> > let them get up to a nice cherry red.  Depending on what the platters
> > are made of, this might even melt them, which should effectively
> > destroy any organization in the material that once formed a thin film
> > on them.  If not, it should demagnetize the coating....
>
> Unhealthy.
>
> I would expect that to generate a fair amount of sulphuric and
> hydrochloric acid.
> A fair bit of the shit inside the HD also would end up in the nearby
> soil.
>
>