Secure disk destruction [was Re: Floppy recovery]

[jwsmobile]

On 1/7/2016 6:20 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:
> 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.
There are machines sold to machine document destruction folks that will 
shred the entire drive into pieces the size of large grains of sand.  
They are deployable on trucks with on site document destruction 
services, and I know of two friends here in Orange Country who have 
bought them.

They are also useful if you are also doing your own high-grade gold 
refining pass, for preparation of material.  The two recycling operators 
I know are probably doing this process as well.  Most gold recover folks 
are not trusted.

thanks
jim