Erasing a Hard drive

Pull out the platters and physically destroy them.

As far as I know for a HD that won't work, that's the only way. Unless you have a HD Shredder...

Mrafrohead

I fully agree with dis-assembling a dead hard drive with any critical data on it.

To assure that any data can not be recovered, you can melt down the platters.

Just take the drive to any local repair shop that has an Acetylene torch, and watchas they melt down the drive for you.
If you don't need to do this often, the shop may even do it for free just for the fun of destroying some hardware.

It's possible that your auto-clave may reach a temperature that would "reset" the magnetic properties of the platters.

Chas

A Drill Press works wonders and is simple good therapy :)

If you tried a magnet and its still leaving recoverable data you are using a wimpy magnet.

But the solution is simple -- as mentioned by others I vote for physical destruction. This is my preferred method when I absolutely, positively must get the data to a point of zero recoverability. This can also be theraputic (added bonus) -- sledge hammers or once a fellow IT manager of mine, employed by another company acually blew a HD up with two M-80's in his back yard... lol. But the most "professional" means of destroying a hard drive is probably what I was taught years ago -- drill it. We drill holes clean through the platters then a blow torch (if we want to add the fun factor) gets applied to the controller card.

Just be safe in your destruction.

later.

I seem to recall a magazine article or web site where somebody actually used various types of guns on computer hardware. I don't recall the location, but the photographs were fairly interesting.

I should make a HD sized nesting box with a gearhead and single shaft driving it with titanium bits coming out @ 3\8 spacings on each individual gear.

You pop the HD into the end and drill down through the top section of the box and then lift the drill back up.... Voila! Swiss Cheese.

They would cost about 100.00$ to manufacture. Think anyone would buy them?

Coke-A-Cola has been known to be a rust remover also.

It is not the carbonation, but the acids in Coke that cause it to destroy metal.

I suspect that the process is a bit too slow for most hard drive platters, as they are not made from iron.
Chas

Either burn the thing in an industrial incinerator - maybe the local pet crematorium can help - or open the case and apply liberal amounts of Oxy-Acetylene flame to the innards until they are no more.

I know of plenty of people who would love todo this to their old hard drive, particularly if its failure has resulted in the loss of mobs of data.

Does this conform to the standard?

And no HDD ever leaves our business it's working or not when we dispose of computers we fit new HDD's that arn't even formatted and then dismantle the old ones and destroy the Platters.

If thier IBM Glass Platter drives then these platters smash eaisly but any other one we apply an oxy torch to each indivual platter until the magentic material is burnt off and we do this to each platter of the drive in question. We also dispose of the junk in different means everything but the platters can go into the rubbish and the platters go into the industrial waste different to the same bin as the rest of the drive goes into.

I hope this is of some use to you. And if you need to get the special screw drivers to dismantle the drives then try Snapon as they have a very good range of these tools.

Try this. I'm not sure why your hard drive will not spin or for how long it's been in this condition. Once tip that I received from the "Republic" is to remove the hard drive from the computer, place it in a plastic baggie, then put it in the freezer for about 3 hours (the longer the better). After this is done, the drive has a good chance of spinning again and you may be able to re-format the hard drive. Sometimes you may have to do this a couple of times because the disk will have a tendancy to stop spinning as it warms up. As long as it stays cold, it should spin. It would appear to me that right now, you have nothing to lose by trying this. Good luck!