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- - Do we still smash hard drives with hammers? (https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1300559)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpicyM (Post 22294704)

[...]you just need to format or wipe the drive, ideally with the tools provided by each manufacturer - those always contain Secure Erase function. It takes seconds.

Don't rely on secure erase. It often does not work.

I take mine out with me when i go fishing and dump them in the lake.

I've got 2 old ones saved. Haven't destroyed them yet but someday I will. :2 cents:

Quote:

Originally Posted by rowan (Post 22295101)

Don't rely on secure erase. It often does not work.

That's why I said to first encrypt the drive.. read again.

If it's encrypted, all you need to do is simply reset the drive / delete the partition which is fast.

I save them and when I have a few dead ones I melt them with thermite after shooting them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sincats (Post 22294920)

I mounted mine to a tree and we used it for target practice with a .45. Seemed to do the trick, and was fun.

Another tree. Dead.

hammers are a good way to hurt yourself with debris or with the hammer itself...

a few holes with a drill takes like 10 seconds and makes the whole thing worthless. Just not as dramatic so not as popular.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rowan (Post 22295101)

Don't rely on secure erase. It often does not work.

There is program called "DBAN", which is best program for secure delete, but safest method is also slow as fuck. It's been a years since i used it, and then hard drive sizes was much smaller so i guess now using deepest method could take even longer. Tho, once i tried program which coming with linux, which basicly is "filling hard drive sectors with zeroes", took 1 days to finish 1 tb drive, and after i tested it with undelete program nothing was found on it, not a single file and it was full before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KlenTelaris (Post 22295463)

Dban is for HDDs, not SSDs. Since SSDs use a different technology for writing data (it writes to a new block each time), it can keep some data on the disk even if you fully rewrite it.

Secure Erase is officially supported by manufacturers and works most of the time since it resets the memory and takes seconds. No reason to spend hours filling SSD with zeroes.

If you encrypt your SSD, all you need to do is perform Secure Erase (ideally) or at least remove the partition. If there was still someone to retrieve the data, he would have to guess the password, which should be over 20 characters long (recommended by VeraCrypt).

Quote:

Originally Posted by rowan (Post 22294572)

See above. Overwrite with random data should do the trick in most case.

No, rewriting SSD doesn't ensure all data will be gone, even if fully rewritten.. that's why Dban won't work for SSDs as is stated on their site:

https://dban.org/

Dban writes random data (and there are several methods to choose from) but it only works on magnetic drives.

The best method is to encrypt the whole SSD , then use Secure Erase.