Exploding hard drives and your privacy -- How to dispose of old hard drives

Exploding hard drives and your privacy -- How to dispose of old hard drives

I recently read an article about an amazing thing.

We probably all remember the sad events of the Columbia Space Shuttle that tragically exploded upon reentry into the Earth's atmosphere back in 2003. I've been fascinated by space travel since I was a young boy, and what happened to Columbia as well as Challenger back in 1986 had a huge impact on me.

You might be wondering what this has to do with computers; well let me explain.

In the article I mentioned above, I learned that a hard drive was recovered amongst the debris of the Columbia. The hard drive had been used to store valuable information from scientific studies done during Columbia's final mission.

The drive was sent to a data recovery center to see if any of this information could be salvaged, and incredibly **over 90%** of the files were recovered!

And remember: the files were recovered from a drive that had been through a tremendous explosion, and then had fallen *several miles* to hit the ground at high speeds and was burnt and twisted almost beyond recognition.

And they still were able to get more than 90% of the files.

If that's true, think how easy it would be for someone to go to a landfill or recycling center, take the old hard drive from your old computer, and get to the files!

So if you have any personal information on your computer -- including passwords, bank info, social security numbers, and the like, if that drive gets into the wrong hands, it can lead to someone digging into your private affairs or even stealing your identity.

There's a few horror stories I've read about this happening to drives out of computers sold on eBay or left at a repair shop.

So if your computer stops working and you have it in at a repair shop and they tell you it's not worth repairing, you might be wondering should you leave your old hard drive at the repair shop?

Well, I'd suggest you don't -- if you're replacing your old computer and have it in at a shop they will often offer to keep it for you in exchange for waiving or lowering their fee, in hopes that they can use it for a few parts.

This is fine, but I would suggest you ask them for the hard drive back just in case -- it's not that they're going to try to steal your identity, but you don't know what they're going to do with the drive. It could end up in someone else's computer, or in a landfill just waiting for someone to come along and take it.

Not good!

If you're wondering "What can I do with my old hard drive?", well, you can stick it in a drawer or in a box in storage someplace. Wait long enough and the technology will become so outdated that even a technologically savvy and determined identity thief won't be able to do anything with it, or at least not without so much effort that it's not likely they'll bother.

Or you can take a screwdriver to it and open it up (if you're a curious person, it's actually pretty interesting) where you'll find a few metal disks called "platters" -- these are the actual hard disks in the hard drive, and the specific part of your computer where your files are stored.

If you're feeling paranoid (or just careful) you can take a hammer to them and you can then shatter the disks into tiny pieces, and you'll be close to guaranteeing no one will get your files. Save it for a bad day when you need to work off some steam, and you'll even kill two birds with one stone.

Hopefully this article will help protect you, and answer the question of how to dispose of old hard drives.