When you get rid of a computer hard drive, it’s important to get rid of it properly. Your hard drive probably contains a lot of sensitive information on it, like tax returns or loan applications. Here’s how to destroy a computer hard drive when you need to.
Let’s set some expectations here. Making the data impossible to recover isn’t something you can do without a drive shredder. But you can make it so difficult and expensive to recover that nobody will bother. That’s good enough. If it costs $10,000 to recover the data from your drive, a thief isn’t going to do it, due to the risk that you don’t have $10,000 to steal.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.