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Thread ID: 30666 2003-02-27 06:02:00 Secure Destruction of a hard drive? PoWa (203) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
124347 2003-02-27 07:40:00 You could use a wipe program such as BCWipe (not free) or PGP Wipe but it has to be noted that data that has been wiped can still be recovered upto a point. A murder in NZ in the last couple of years involved a computer that had been wiped several times and enough data was recovered to pin the suspect to the computer at that time.

The best way I saw of destroying a hard drive was in the Middle East where a switch had been mounted to the front of the PC which would result in current being fed into the drive or something like that.
Gordon. (2217)
124348 2003-02-27 07:51:00 hell if your going to the Middle East but 500000 capacitors, 12 car batteries and an explosive
charge the capacitors and discharge them as you set the explosive off
EMP bomb that'll wipe out all the data on you harddrive, and electronic devices and anyone elses within in a 400m raids
sc0ut (2899)
124349 2003-02-27 07:59:00 Stand corrected Billy. Ta

Murray P
Murray P (44)
124350 2003-02-27 08:17:00 And I thought 'Hammer' was a real program untill I clicked that link... silly me.

I like the EMP idea, though I'd be more interested in making a weapon that can shoot electromagnetic rays, and just fire some through the tech office room of my school like an xray... that'd be guarenteed to screw up the servers located within, or even better, get one of those electromagnetic cranes they use in car junk yards, put it on the roof of the tech office, and flick it on and off a few times for a few minutes, probably be guarenteed to either: (a) lift the servers up to the ceiling, then drop them back down, and repeat; or (b) cause serious damage to every single electronic device within, and maybe even blow a few fuses if I'm lucky.
agent (30)
124351 2003-02-27 08:22:00 There's s'posed to be one, but its about $30 US and I cant remember the name or anything. Only ones I know of cost $$ Chilling_Silence (9)
124352 2003-02-27 08:22:00 Hmmmm.... your enthusiasm outweighs your knowledge of physics agent.

The power required to drive a magnet that powerful would pop the fuses/breakers. Those lifting magnets rely upon close contact with the metal they are lifting and magnetic field conductance trhoughut the scrap or whatever. They are no good at a distance.

Cheers

8-{) :D
Billy T (70)
124353 2003-02-27 08:27:00 So I'll just stick with the electromagnetic ray weapon idea, I read about that within the past week at a trusted-to-be-true source, might've been MSNBC, but I can't remember. agent (30)
124354 2003-02-27 08:30:00 Oh yes, and those rays?

Urban myth!

HDDs are shielded inside a solid metal casing, inside a metal outer case. You would need a high power laser to burn through that lot!

Hand held = limited energy source = low power out.

Chemical lasers or pumped lasers could do it but it's a hell of a lot of technology to bring to bear when a hammer can do the same job.

Cheers

Billy 8-{) :D

Cheers

Billy
Billy T (70)
124355 2003-02-27 08:42:00 How about flicking the power switch a few hundred times in one minute? ]:) agent (30)
124356 2003-02-27 09:21:00 Ok after reading through the amusing but techniquely usless information posted here, apart from a few comments, I am still not that much closer to a solution :)

I had a laugh at the hammer joke, but using a hammer will not stop anyone, there are things called electron microscopes ;) And burning it in say your fireplace is not quite good enough either as electron microscopes can still read it. As for 'extreme heat' well, it depends how hot it was..if the hd melted you could call that secure. Where do I obtain such extreme heat producing device from anyway? A school science lab (aka bunsen burner)? :)

Anyway to more serious point. I have PGP 8. It can only destroy free space on a drive, and it doesn't run from a floppy or anything, which you need it to if you want the whole drive erased.

Tell me about the PCWipe thing? Where do you find that?

And NO, I do not want to destroy my hard drive. I want it erased and I want to use it again. :D
PoWa (203)
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