MadModder

The Breakroom => The Water Cooler => Topic started by: awemawson on January 13, 2016, 09:51:42 AM

Title: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: awemawson on January 13, 2016, 09:51:42 AM
Back end of last year I had a disc fail on my main desk top - it just went slower and slower - presumably doing loads of re-reads to get the data off. I managed to get a back up off it - it took 7.5 hours for what would usually take 45 minutes  :bugeye:)

So I installed a replacement, recovered from the back up, and put the faulty one in the safe just in case something hadn't worked properly. Well it's been stable on the new disc, so the time came to destroy the old disc to make sure the data didn't get into the wrong hands. Not that there's much confidential stuff on it, but lots of accounts, family pictures - the usual stuff that accumulates.

Normally I'd wipe the data using software then pull the platters and bend them. Couldn't wipe it due to the fault so I thought that a bit of out of the box thinking was called for.

Roll out the ubiquitous Cold Saw and cut it in half. No doubt hitting it with a sledge hammer would have worked - but I didn't

After that I was happy to put it in the bin. No doubt the FBI could get something off it but I doubt that they'd bother  :lol:


It says 'Warranty void if label removed' - well the label is still there, do you think I could claim  :clap:
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: Chuck in E. TN on January 13, 2016, 10:01:36 AM
Now strip the steel and plastic bits off the pieces and melt the frame into ingots!

I have recycled over a hundred hard drives for the aluminum cases and magnets.

Chuck
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: RotarySMP on January 13, 2016, 10:03:34 AM
The frames of hard drives are really nice castings. They make nice raw material for the home foundry.

Regards,
Mark
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: Arbalist on January 13, 2016, 10:51:03 AM
I've seen a few Hard drive platters used for a Sterling engine builds, shame to waste them.
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: awemawson on January 13, 2016, 11:37:43 AM
Pay the postage and I'll give you quite a few to pull apart  :lol:
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: gerritv on January 13, 2016, 12:00:28 PM
The platters make good indexing plates, very flat :-) I used a dull centre drill on this one, next version was much better.
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: John Stevenson on January 13, 2016, 02:54:12 PM
I much prefer stacking them up on the hydraulic press on a bit of thick walled tube and sending the ram straight though the lot.

(http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/hard%20drives.jpg)
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: DMIOM on January 13, 2016, 03:08:15 PM
Are those the disks that caused the homeworkshop outage the other week?    (and I feel slightly guilty even suggesting that, as John & Adam put so much into that site & the community).

and most mere mortals just use hand-pressure !


Dave
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: awemawson on January 13, 2016, 03:25:02 PM
I much prefer stacking them up on the hydraulic press on a bit of thick walled tube and sending the ram straight though the lot.

(http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/hard%20drives.jpg)

 :lol: :lol: :lol: Clumsy Bastard   :lol: :lol: :lol:
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: chipenter on January 13, 2016, 05:42:14 PM
I take them apart for the bearings , 4 of 4mm ballraces save £2 a pop .
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: raynerd on January 13, 2016, 05:52:09 PM
I take them apart for the bearings , 4 of 4mm ballraces save £2 a pop .

Same  :headbang:
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: Alan Haisley on January 13, 2016, 09:42:30 PM
The magnets are odd-shaped but very strong. I like to save them. Now that I know the bearings are 4 mm, I'll save them too.


Alan
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: Pete W. on January 14, 2016, 05:15:46 AM
Hi there, all,

The magnets are odd-shaped but very strong. I like to save them. Now that I know the bearings are 4 mm, I'll save them too.

Alan

I've dismantled quite a few hard drives.  I think (hope??) the data isn't retrievable once the platters are removed from their spindle.

That activity has cost me a few small diameter pin punches while trying to remove some of the pivot pins.  I even managed to bend a couple of the type that have a sliding sleeve round the pin!

My local scrap metal dealer is happy to take the chassis and the platters but he didn't know what to do with a 3 gallon bucket full of magnets!!  Incidentally, I read somewhere that the Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnetic material is flammable if the Nickel coating is damaged?!?!  Can anyone confirm this??

Several years ago, my lovely but shy assistant bid for '1000+ ex-equipment hard drives, buyer collects' on eBay, intending to purge, test and resell them.  (She won the auction. It took three journeys in our Peugeot 405 Estate to get them home.)  After she started to test them she came and told me 'They're all dead - when I power them up they just go "click, click"!'.  It turned out that they'd all been put through a large and powerful demagnetiser.  Judging by the cardboard labels in some of the boxes, I think they'd been doing the rounds of all the Amateur Radio Rally flea markets in Southern England for a year or so!!!  I still have a few (hundred) to 'process'.  I reckon the scrap value of one hard drive chassis just about equates to our original cost for that drive but that means I put my time in for free!  Still, it keeps me off the streets.

I currently have a 2.5" hard drive part-processed - the screws that secure the circuit board to the chassis are even smaller than my smallest torx driver. 
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: Auskart on January 14, 2016, 04:49:02 PM
I suppose the question begs "What were you trying to hide"  :doh:
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: awemawson on January 14, 2016, 05:07:24 PM
Account numbers, saved passwords, family photos, company accounts, but sorry old chap to disappoint you - nothing devious  :lol:
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: Will_D on January 14, 2016, 05:38:45 PM
The actual platter makes a great mirror!

Also how to remove the big magnets?  Yet to find th eright solvent and heat just demagnetises them

Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: tom osselton on January 15, 2016, 12:31:14 AM
Found this on you-tube


Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: chipenter on January 15, 2016, 02:59:38 AM
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The magnets are odd-shaped but very strong. I like to save them. Now that I know the bearings are 4 mm, I'll save them too.


Alan
The magnets are the glued on segments knock then loose and slide them off , tip don't put them on a fridge or a large peice of metal as you wont lift them off without scratching the fridge .
Title: Re: Keep Your Hands OFF My Data !!!!!
Post by: kayzed1 on January 15, 2016, 03:44:50 PM
I take them apart for the bearings , 4 of 4mm ballraces save £2 a pop .

I thought that was just me!! :doh: