Secure disk destruction [was Re: Floppy recovery]

[Fred Cisin]

On Thu, 7 Jan 2016, drlegendre . wrote:
> 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?

Bending the platters will keep them from turning and being usable in the 
drive, but does NOT prevent various other imaging methods.

Breaking a platter in half doesn't prevent those techniques.

Shattering a glass platter into dozens of pieces doesn't prevent those 
techniques.

breaking it into tiny bits may or may not depending on how much effort 
somebody is willing to put into identifying where each piece came from in 
the platter.

High heat should work.

Sanding all of the rust off of the platter should work.

Mailing the drive to a government office, with a note saying, "please 
help me recover the pictures of my grandmother's birthday party", and 
having it lost in their mailroom might work.