Hey Iyaz, how about a show on how to make your old hard drives unreadable so you can send them to...

[G+_Nik Kearney]

Hey Iyaz, how about a show on how to make your old hard drives unreadable so you can send them to recycling without fear of bad guy getting personal data off them.

 

I have a stack of old hard drives from old PC's with varying amounts of personal data on them.It would be nice to be able to get rid of said stack.

 

My main questions are:

 

Can a USB to IDE connector give low enough level of access to permanently erase drives as I have no computer with an IDE connection?

 

Is the Disk Utility built into OSX sufficient for the job?

 

And for the paranoid part of my brain, can a dead hard drive be made unreadable from even someone with resources like a clean room and spare parts?

[G+_Dan Phillips]

check out http://www.dban.org I volunteer at a place (pcmuseum.ca) that fixes up donated machines and then gives them to families in need and that is what we use.

 

Or you can use your favorite power tool, which may be more fun.

[G+_Mathew Hoffman]

Couple of quick hits with a hammer soon cracks the platters

[G+_Jim Jensen]

You might also use a utility to back up the serial #s     keys. licenses for windows or any os for that matter.

Someday you might need them for another box down the line before you nuke em.

 

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb3_universaldriveadap.php

[G+_John Mink]

I hear that fun things happen to HDDs when you run, say 120V across the platters  ^_^

 

And, as Dan Phillips suggested, you can't go wrong with power tools!

[G+_Nicholas Cooling]

Msc get a cheap demagnetizer like we use in the tool room at the shop.

[G+_K R]

I think you should take the circuit board of hard drive .

[G+_Jim Jensen]

CCleaner does not do industrial strength drive wiping

Beware. TimandSiah Hamlett