Yes! It would have been WONDERFUL if the guy said (even just a single time) "if you are going to do this, it can be effective but you must make sure that you drill through the platter" (and maybe even show the viewer how to make sure) instead of spending the entire time trying to prove a point than no one really cares much about except him.
I think a better title is "Make sure you drill holes in the right place when drilling your hard drive." Super simple, easy to see where to drill for anyone above 40 IQ, way less effort than taking it apart unless your drill is very far away. Still, this is informative on WHY you need to be accurate with your drill.
Thank you for the title suggestion. The reason to be accurate with the drill is the need to actually drill into the platter and not just the shell. I prefer either taking it apart, which I don't do anymore as I have plenty of magnets, or using software to wipe it clean. Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment.
@@steveno7058 Unless you have national security info on your hard drive, the easiest way to completely erase a hard drive is to use free data destruction software, such as DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke).
I just drilled a bunch of hard drives and made sure to hit the platters on all of them. The secret is going in through the cast black aluminum base, which is really comparatively soft. You'll definitely hit the platter. Just keep drilling until you feel it catch the platter and go through. Trying to drill through the silver "cover" is a waste of time. That's stainless steel and it puts up quite a fight.
It seems very unnatural that you could drill three to four holes into a hard drive and coincidentally not hit a single platter, considering how large their surface area are.
I can only guess as to why the person doing the drilling did such a poor job, perhaps they had no idea what they were trying to destroy. Maybe the bit was worn, who knows? You have to determine what options are available to wipe out or destroy data and then which is the best approach for your particular situation. While I have destroyed a drive or two in the past, I prefer to re-purpose them for backup purposes or as a scratch drives.
@@cfldriven I’m learning IT right now and don’t know how to wipe a drive, and also have no interest in keeping a 2.5” hard drive I can’t use that has less than a terabyte in storage.
I just ran into this video. I’m a tech for a local news company, and I oversee destroying all old company Hdd in bulk, with a machinist training background, the only way to destroy these is to drill through the plate s, but their is wrong way then there’s is the right way. The wrong way is drilling through the top cover of any hard drive. The top cover is usually stainless steel, which is a tough metal for production-like destruction of HDD. After about ten to twenty HDD’s your drill tip will get so dull, that another 10 to 15 HDDs will actually change your drill bit tip. Best bet is to turn the HDD OVER TO ITS BROWN IN COLOR BOTTOM, FIND THE PLATENS CENTER AND DRIL ONE INCH left, right or above this center, using a container of WD-40 to wet the drill between each “drill through. The brown part of the HDD bottom and platens are aluminum, a non ferrous metal, soft metal, that can do 50 to 75 HDDs, so long as you keep your drill bit wet with WD-40 before each drill. Then harvest the magnets at your leisure.
Eddie thank you for added insight. As you state if done correctly you can drill and destroy. I prefer taking them apart and throwing the platters into a pile, saves on drill bits. Besides most of the drives I get have been wiped clean.
When I mentioned destroy, I meant more or less the platens that may have data info on them. Taking them apart, specially when you have HDD in bulk, can be a tedious process, drilling into the platens THEN takin* them apart, is what I prefer.and you’re correct in harvesting the magnets, they’re a must have and an all around tool. I use the magnets as a stud finder, the magnets stick to drywall screws, even through dried drywall compound, i’ll Epoxy the mags onto GoPro camera armatures for easy mounting and dismounting, I’ll use them for tool shadow boards, where they attach tools to their marked spaces, easily.
Came here to learn how to destroy data before recycling (since old laptop broke down and won't turn on.) I wasn't planning on saving the magnet, but now you guys have sold me!
John, the need to destroy a working drive when it can be wiped and repurposed is a bit crazy to me. I have better uses for my drill bits. Thanks for watching.
No it isn’t. Takes literally 1 minute to drill through the platter. Takes at least 10-15 minutes to disassemble and you need special tools to remove the platter. It isn’t very difficult to make sure you hit the platter
Wow what a neat idea. And if you miss you can tell people you actually shot through the center hole of the platter. LOL Where these glass or metal platters?
Be sure you hit the platters if you decide to drill. Format your drives first, multiple passes. One hole is sufficient because it will warp the platters as you go through them. Take a sledgehammer to the drives for good measure. I also remove the PCB and recycle those separately.
Those are some majorly strong magnets in there! Worth keeping, and perhaps using to hang tools etc. Destroy the disc and recycle the rest, seems like the environmentally friendly approach, and it definitely saves on drill bits lol.
Very strong magnets, some people use them for magnet fishing. Definitely worth re-purposing even if only on the refrigerator door. Can even use the discs as a mobile or wind chime. Thank you for your input.
cfldriven Maybe this is a silly question, but assuming the platter hadn’t been previously wiped, couldn’t you basically degauss it by rubbing one of those magnets against the platter for a few seconds?
If it was an audio cassette yes, but realize these magnets are right next to the platters and don't have any effect on the data. Also if you have direct access to the platters, it is easy to do physical permanent damage to them thus making the data unrecoverable.
Glories it's informative, but the title is misleading. He's making it would like drilling a hold on the drive won't stop a person from recovering the data. When people drill holes, they should always go for the platters, as they have the data. His title should be: Don't drill holes in your hard drive except if you know you'll hit the platters.
Awesome vid. I have 2 old laptops I am going to get rid of. I was actually going to use a hammer or drill holes in them until I saw this. Now I will take them apart and destroy them that way. Thank you.
My preferred method of hard drive destruction involves a big empty field in the country and large caliber firearms. A 250gr .45 Colt cowboy action lead flat nose bullet will blow off the top cover, mangle the platters, warp the rear casing, and wreck the circuit board, all with a single shot.
I made one accidental hole trough my HDD, do you think if restore both side copper tracks it will function again or inside board layers (board got 6-7 layers how i heard) will be destroyed as well and the only chance is replace by matching board with original BIOS chip ?
All your showing is that the fools that drilled them failed to drill through the platter. Probbably have never seen one inside. If you drill just ones through the disc it will desteoy data. I MY SELF cut the discs with a grinder after I take all apart.
Not as simple as just 'changing' the PCB board with another, since you would need to remove the BIOS/Firmware chip from the old PCB and replace it on the new PCB, so effectively, drilling/killing the bios chip makes it very hard to reteive any of that data. Encrypting the drive first before removing it and then drilling BIOS/Firmware chip is one of the best data-protection methods that exist. Alternatively, companies that have critical data and need to be 100% should be using a Hard Drive Shredding Machine, they cost as little as $10K and will shread anything, from CDS to Hard Drives, and printed documents.
Thank you for sharing your insight. Won't encrypting multi terabyte drives take a long time? I encrypted a 5TB ext on an older laptop and it took 10 days.
@@cfldriven I don't recommend using any laptop for data encryption on a 5TB drive unless its a Intel 7th Gen i7 or above. For Desktops, most Intel processors after 2017 will speed up the process greatly. This is due to AVX512 and AVX2 which essential is hardware acceleration which will greatly decrease the time needed to fully encrypt it. But it's important to note that a Intel Atom with AVX2 is going to be much slower than a Xeon with AVX512. AMD also have h/w instructions in CPUS made after 2017 as well (Ryzen)
I really don’t get which part actually holds data. You say the drive parts can be disposed of in different trash bags, but what part holds the data and how will different disposal bags help if one undestroyed part can fall into someone’s hands?
Each of the platters holds data. In multi platter drives the info is written across all the platters, thus separating prevents recovery of all the info. If you have sensitive data they're are better ways erasing it without the need for drilling or taking a drive apart.
@@cfldriven When you first learn to arc weld, you discover very quickly that it's too easy to blow holes through metal until you get the technique right ;) About 3 seconds to feed a welding rod right through the case and platters with molten metal splattering all through it. Very satisfying, but yeah not something that everyone has. (and you do need to put on a bit of protective gear).
what could one use the magnets for ? I got a box filled with old and older still hard drives , I could take them apart instead of just dumping them whole :-)
They are great for holding things like calendars, notepads, etc. I always keep one by the tool box as they are helpful when searching for dropped screws and nails. Can be used for magnet fishing (google this), where you drag it through a stream looking for metal objects.
LOL. I have some of those magnets too. They hold up lots of pictures on the fridge! I worked for someone that had us disassemble the cases, remove the platters and set them on the ground and bend them up with a hammer.
Ok, that's great....but how do you open it if you don't have that special screw driver? I tried everything and can't get it open so how do I destroy it? Is there another option for those who can't open it?
Thanks for the question, the Torx bits and drivers are readily available at any hardware store. But let say you don't want to spend money on tools for just one drive, other options could include using software to wipe the drive clean, repurpose drive to store music or old files, smash it up with a hammer or sledge, drill a couple of holes completely through the platters, or use it for target practice. Of course if it just full of love poems to your ex HS sweetheart just drop it off at the recycling center.
@@cfldriven Haha, thanks....I was hacked badly and my computer was completely compromised. This is the second computer it's hapoened to in a few months. It would not allow me to do anything not even delete files, get into my C: drive etc or even format.. So I've decided I want to destroy it. Would hammering really do it? I mean it's so solid. I have to destroy the other one also.
@@IncubusOfDeath Do you need to destroy it if you and no one else can access the data? While the sides and bottom are solid, the top plate will succumb to heavy blows. I'd wear safety glasses and gloves. When you start hearing parts rattling around you've succeeded.
RAM needs to be energized to hold information. Once power is lost it is wiped out, thus why you have to wait for computer to boot up as there is nothing in ram from previous session. Now ROM can hold on to info, but it instructions like in the BIOS chip.
Just be careful if you have two or more together. They can easily snap together with great force and if you fingers are in the way you can cause an injury.
I have 2 laptops I want to throw away and I don't have a drill. Do I just destroy the CD looking round part inside the hard drive so no1 can access anything I had on it? I'll smash up the laptop itself with a hammer too is this all I need to do. Thank you
If the laptops are still usable consider repurposing, selling or donating them. If not then drop them off for recycling. Just remove the hard drive destroy the internal discs. Disc can be made of glass or metal. The glass will shatter while the metal will bend and tear.
You'd think the people drilling into the hard drive would take the top off first and drill directly into the disk, seems that would be the minimum you should do if you decide to go that route.
Probably because it involves finding the correct Torx tool and going through the processing of removing them all. They could have a least drilled all the way through the drive, but again it someone taking the easy way out without the proper tools. Thanks for sharing and watching.
@@cfldriven Well that's my dilemma too really, I've got an old hard drive and was going to pop the top off, but I'm going to have to get a "torx tool." I guess if you can't see the disc or get the top off you could always drill uniformed holes all the way through all throughout the drive so you know there are several holes in it.
@@cfldriven I put a hole all the way through my hard drive, just to one side of the spinner, and afterword, you can see the hole in the disc and the it still spins so you can see the hole you've made. I just drilled one pilot hole and then I spin the disc and put several holes all the way through. One hole in the drive, several holes in the actual disc. It was easy and also easy to verify the mission was accomplished.
Just inscrew the top off the drive, pour a capful of lighter fluid on the platter, and then hit it was a butane or blow torch for 10 seconds. Game over and no way of recovering it.
Informative video...thanks! Question: Some paper shredders can accept CDs and DVDs. Are the platters similar in composition so that they can be shredded as well?
Platters are usually metal or glass, so it will probably ruin your shredder. Instead make a wind chime or scatter each disk in a separate garbage bag. Thanks for the feedback and viewing.
um drill all the way through and you will not have issue . just make sure you drill in the right spot. put the drive on a block of wood then drill all the way through into the wood done
@@cfldriven I also have a 8tb hd seagate that I was cloning brand new that was on the floor my girl accidentally tripped over the wire and it disconnected during install and it was over after that it made the spindle noise when I turned it on again and never had a chance to even use I wanted to put her in the hard drive just to delete her lol
@@allinonethegreat What where you thinking leaving all those cables and hardware on the floor, while your girl was free ranging in the same area? I once came home to my toddler sliding on my LPs on the floor. He had destroyed a half dozen by the time I walked in.
I've been looking for a good way to render my old hard drives useless... but then got caught up watching keyboard cat. But... I'm guessing this was informative....sooooo....
@@KableTac eh, somewhat. It depends on how good of a job you do. I’m gonna use it for target practice, so if they get the Windows 7 OS off of it after I ensure the platter is cracked, they can keep it, since I’d already be dead.
I've got a couple of old laptops whose hard drives I wanted to destroy. You've made an excellent case for NOT drilling holes through a hard drive/case. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear you found the video useful. I tend to re-purpose my older drives and the ones I can't get disassembled. If selling or donating a computer I include a hard drive that has been wiped several times and formatted with a new OS so that the computer is useable. Thank you for the feedback.
If you drill your hdd make sure it goes all the way through the front and back If you open a hdd it will break so you can do what i normally do which is open it, hammer the shit out of the disk and the header, close it. Then power drill all the way through, and if i really want it gone, beat the shit out of the controller.
@@cfldriven after watching your video, I decided to take your approach. The other videos that show smashing desktop hard drives with a hammer and then shaking it as a means to prove that the disc is shattered is not true. It could be the green board that shattered! After I opened the drive and took out my disc I decided to take a hammer and punch pin to it. Guess what...the punch pin just punched a hole into the disc, didn't even shatter, crack or anything. My disc is resilient because when I took two pliers to snap it in half.....it just bent, no shatter. Any- hoot, thanks for posting and saving my drill and drill bits.
It will be easy if the platter is glass, a lot harder if metal. You could make a wind chime out of them or use them as coasters. Thank you for watching.
@@josephcroft4268 Yes an angle grinder would allow you to cut it up, but probably a lot less dangerous just to open it up and deal with the individual platters.
@@cfldriven I wipe them first when possible using shred and then put them on the drill press. All disks are fully encrypted from the day they are commissioned as well.
@@happycamper3455 Actually the video only proves that a CD-ROM or DVD will generate an interesting light show. I'd advise against putting any things in a microwave oven that it wasn't designed for.
What I did is grab wood plank and get the sledge hammer and wack it 5 times really hard then get the drop saw and cut it in half. Done :) Takes legit 2 minutes
Not true, drilling a hole is the quickest way, get a nice sharp drill, drill off center to avoid the motor, and drill all the way through. Data is toast
Watching this after I definitely missed the platters like huh turns out I'm a giant idiot. Guess someone might be able to recover some pics of my dog, some nudes of my ex, and some cringy highschool poetry.
I got to open the HD, just to discover that the torx on the spindle are smaller than a T5, I fucking hate every single tech company, why do they have to make these obscenely small screws?
I recently experienced a similar issue when taking apart a laptop hard drive. Got lucky and found a bit driver that had the smaller torx. Thanks for sharing and watching.
If it was truly sensitive data, this method would still leave partial data readable. OF course for the rest of us, this sounds like a good solution. Thanks for sharing.
Hey there! We sell tons of hard drive destruction equipment and are wondering if you want to have a promo link in your description to earn some commission?
@@cfldriven We have hard drive crushers, shredders, magnetic wands, and degaussers. Degaussers send an EMP thru drives. You can take a look here: www.whitakerbrothers.com/hard-drive-destruction-1 Thanks for replying! My name is John. I do a lot of the demo videos at Whitaker.
Rick, it can be that simple, but some folks get it wrong. I prefer to repurpose the HD instead of trashing drill bits. Thanks for watching and sharing.
Drilling is okay if you actually drill the right spot. You just used poor drilling efforts to try to show that drilling is bad. So this video doesn’t really prove anything. If anything, it just shows that people should be more careful about “how” they drill.
Actually in the video I mention how I got these drives from the IT dept, I didn't do any drilling. Which goes to show even the experts can get it wrong and thus proving the point. I agree everyone needs to be more careful especially if drilling a hard drive. Thanks for the comment.
Would think anyone who is mining, would be extra careful not to leave any Bitcoin on their drive before discarding. If there are bitcoins left on a drive, don't you need password to do something with them?
@@cfldriven A few years ago an IT guy accidentally discarded a hard drive with over 7000 Bitcoin. To this day he's still trying to get permission to dig up the landfill. So even tech savvy people make mistakes. The original Bitcoin wallet stored the data on a file called wallet.dat and that's what you should be looking for. And apparently there are ways to hack that dat file even if password protected/encrypted.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I guess the real question is for most law abiding citizens, are less drastic steps (overwriting, encryption, re-purposing drive, disassembly, etc) offering enough protection?
@@cfldriven I mean it's easier to do than drilling. But I guess the most effective way to destroy it is using a sandpaper and deeply scratching all the disk surface or burning.
@@ozmobozo Lots of ways to destroy data, I recently read there is some software that will wipe the drive and destroy the hardware it so it can't be reused.
Actually not since there are better ways of eliminating data on the platter. In this case someone thought they went through all the platters and these were safe to dispose. Thanks for watching.
The IT person that did this was not trying to kill the drive, they wanted to prevent data from being recovered. Since they didn't go through the platters the data would have been recoverable. The point of the video was to show there are better ways of wiping the data off a drive without drilling, but that if you insist on drilling then its like you say through the platters.
The title should be "Don't be an idiot and make sure that you actually drill through the platter"
A little long, but I get your point.
@@cfldriven The video is BEYOND a "little long", for the little information it provides.
@@sunrise8263 Sorry about the length, we strive to provide enough detail and not get long winded. Appreciate the honest feedback.
I concur.
Yes! It would have been WONDERFUL if the guy said (even just a single time) "if you are going to do this, it can be effective but you must make sure that you drill through the platter" (and maybe even show the viewer how to make sure) instead of spending the entire time trying to prove a point than no one really cares much about except him.
After watching a somewhat quiet video... My reaction: " *BECAUSE I LOVE COLLECTING THE MAGNETS THAT ARE INSIDE THE HARD DRIVES,* "
Ben thanks for the comment. Not sure the wife will let me take them with next time we move.
i opened up six HDD's and drilled the discs because of this video
Nicely done. You can also re-purpose the discs as a wind chime.
Even drilling once might not be enough. You need to do it several times.
I think a better title is "Make sure you drill holes in the right place when drilling your hard drive." Super simple, easy to see where to drill for anyone above 40 IQ, way less effort than taking it apart unless your drill is very far away. Still, this is informative on WHY you need to be accurate with your drill.
Thank you for the title suggestion. The reason to be accurate with the drill is the need to actually drill into the platter and not just the shell. I prefer either taking it apart, which I don't do anymore as I have plenty of magnets, or using software to wipe it clean. Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment.
called ...being smarter than the DRILL!! lol
@@cfldriven software doesn’t 100% wipeout everything
@@steveno7058 Unless you have national security info on your hard drive, the easiest way to completely erase a hard drive is to use free data destruction software, such as DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke).
I just drilled a bunch of hard drives and made sure to hit the platters on all of them. The secret is going in through the cast black aluminum base, which is really comparatively soft. You'll definitely hit the platter. Just keep drilling until you feel it catch the platter and go through. Trying to drill through the silver "cover" is a waste of time. That's stainless steel and it puts up quite a fight.
Stephanie, thank you for the great tip of drilling through the softer metal.
It seems very unnatural that you could drill three to four holes into a hard drive and coincidentally not hit a single platter, considering how large their surface area are.
I can only guess as to why the person doing the drilling did such a poor job, perhaps they had no idea what they were trying to destroy. Maybe the bit was worn, who knows?
You have to determine what options are available to wipe out or destroy data and then which is the best approach for your particular situation. While I have destroyed a drive or two in the past, I prefer to re-purpose them for backup purposes or as a scratch drives.
@@cfldriven I’m learning IT right now and don’t know how to wipe a drive, and also have no interest in keeping a 2.5” hard drive I can’t use that has less than a terabyte in storage.
@@flyingturret208thecannon5 You may want to try www.diskwipe.org/
It is open source and free and will wipe your disks and save you some bullets.
@@cfldriven haha, my brother and I like target practice. It's just a different target.
It was probably a girl that was drilling.
I just ran into this video. I’m a tech for a local news company, and I oversee destroying all old company Hdd in bulk, with a machinist training background, the only way to destroy these is to drill through the plate s, but their is wrong way then there’s is the right way. The wrong way is drilling through the top cover of any hard drive. The top cover is usually stainless steel, which is a tough metal for production-like destruction of HDD. After about ten to twenty HDD’s your drill tip will get so dull, that another 10 to 15 HDDs will actually change your drill bit tip. Best bet is to turn the HDD OVER TO ITS BROWN IN COLOR BOTTOM, FIND THE PLATENS CENTER AND DRIL ONE INCH left, right or above this center, using a container of WD-40 to wet the drill between each “drill through. The brown part of the HDD bottom and platens are aluminum, a non ferrous metal, soft metal, that can do 50 to 75 HDDs, so long as you keep your drill bit wet with WD-40 before each drill. Then harvest the magnets at your leisure.
Eddie thank you for added insight. As you state if done correctly you can drill and destroy. I prefer taking them apart and throwing the platters into a pile, saves on drill bits. Besides most of the drives I get have been wiped clean.
When I mentioned destroy, I meant more or less the platens that may have data info on them. Taking them apart, specially when you have HDD in bulk, can be a tedious process, drilling into the platens THEN takin* them apart, is what I prefer.and you’re correct in harvesting the magnets, they’re a must have and an all around tool. I use the magnets as a stud finder, the magnets stick to drywall screws, even through dried drywall compound, i’ll Epoxy the mags onto GoPro camera armatures for easy mounting and dismounting, I’ll use them for tool shadow boards, where they attach tools to their marked spaces, easily.
Eddie, I appreciate you sharing some useful tips for the magnets. Will have to try the shadow boards in my next garage.
Hi eddie, could you do a video or show a photo of exact position to drill, without spoiling the drill bit? Thanks a lot.
Came here to learn how to destroy data before recycling (since old laptop broke down and won't turn on.) I wasn't planning on saving the magnet, but now you guys have sold me!
This is the first real honest review of how to recycle a hard drive. Drilling into these is next to impossible
John, the need to destroy a working drive when it can be wiped and repurposed is a bit crazy to me. I have better uses for my drill bits. Thanks for watching.
No it isn’t. Takes literally 1 minute to drill through the platter. Takes at least 10-15 minutes to disassemble and you need special tools to remove the platter. It isn’t very difficult to make sure you hit the platter
@@steveno7058 Thank you for sharing your experience.
John, I have better uses for my drill set. Thanks for watching.
It's easy. Just drill many holes to be sure. Drill, baby, drill!
I took some platters today & used them for target shooting. Quite satisfying.
Wow what a neat idea. And if you miss you can tell people you actually shot through the center hole of the platter. LOL
Where these glass or metal platters?
The magnets in a hard drive are just the best fun EVER. Nobody can say your notes just fell off the fridge any more, that's for sure.
Just be careful not to get your finger pinched especially between two of those magnets.
We used to take them to the shop and put them on a 20 ton press, let's say if you could get data off of it afterwards it would have been a miracle..
That certainly would solve the problem. Thanks for sharing a different solution.
Use road flares, put them on top of
And underneath the drive, ignite them, and if there's a molten puddle underneath...
if you smash platers,use plastic bag..then all shards stay in bag and no need clean it it
.....unless the shards tear through the plastic bag. Been there.
I curious about why you collect the magnets.
Magnet fishing, and for attaching heavy or bulky items to refrig/metal door.
@@cfldriven What is "magnet fishing?"
@@uu9gfo You attach the magnet(s) to a rope and throw them into a stream or sand and you see if you catch anything interesting.
@@cfldriven have you ever caught anything interesting?
If you colect a bunch of them you can sell them on ebay. From 40 to 70 dollars, the are worth money.
Be sure you hit the platters if you decide to drill. Format your drives first, multiple passes. One hole is sufficient because it will warp the platters as you go through them. Take a sledgehammer to the drives for good measure. I also remove the PCB and recycle those separately.
Dave, thank you for watching and sharing your tips.
So yes, if you INCORRECTLY drill hole in your hard drive, it might not work...
IT dept wouldn't let me have the old drives until they drilled them, but it turned out almost none of the platters were touched by the drill bit.
@AIIUserNamesInvalid As companies tend to save every piece of data, it may be that and more.
Those are some majorly strong magnets in there! Worth keeping, and perhaps using to hang tools etc. Destroy the disc and recycle the rest, seems like the environmentally friendly approach, and it definitely saves on drill bits lol.
Very strong magnets, some people use them for magnet fishing. Definitely worth re-purposing even if only on the refrigerator door. Can even use the discs as a mobile or wind chime.
Thank you for your input.
cfldriven Maybe this is a silly question, but assuming the platter hadn’t been previously wiped, couldn’t you basically degauss it by rubbing one of those magnets against the platter for a few seconds?
If it was an audio cassette yes, but realize these magnets are right next to the platters and don't have any effect on the data. Also if you have direct access to the platters, it is easy to do physical permanent damage to them thus making the data unrecoverable.
Why this have 2 dislikes, this is a really informative video
Thank you for the nice comment. Keep the likes and subscriptions coming.
Glories it's informative, but the title is misleading. He's making it would like drilling a hold on the drive won't stop a person from recovering the data. When people drill holes, they should always go for the platters, as they have the data. His title should be: Don't drill holes in your hard drive except if you know you'll hit the platters.
Glories. Well said. I hate those morons.
Because it's a very misleading title.
according to who? someone that doesnt even know where the power button to turn their computer on?
Awesome vid. I have 2 old laptops I am going to get rid of. I was actually going to use a hammer or drill holes in them until I saw this. Now I will take them apart and destroy them that way. Thank you.
Places like Staples, Best Buy and others will take the old laptops for recycling. Have fun destroying the drives.
My preferred method of hard drive destruction involves a big empty field in the country and large caliber firearms. A 250gr .45 Colt cowboy action lead flat nose bullet will blow off the top cover, mangle the platters, warp the rear casing, and wreck the circuit board, all with a single shot.
Sounds like fun, you get to work on marksmanship and wiping out data. Kinda hard to do in the big city. Thank you for sharing and for the view.
I made one accidental hole trough my HDD, do you think if restore both side copper tracks it will function again or inside board layers (board got 6-7 layers how i heard) will be destroyed as well and the only chance is replace by matching board with original BIOS chip ?
All your showing is that the fools that drilled them failed to drill through the platter. Probbably have never seen one inside. If you drill just ones through the disc it will desteoy data. I MY SELF cut the discs with a grinder after I take all apart.
Soon we will be able to just snap our SSD cards in half.
Not as simple as just 'changing' the PCB board with another, since you would need to remove the BIOS/Firmware chip from the old PCB and replace it on the new PCB, so effectively, drilling/killing the bios chip makes it very hard to reteive any of that data. Encrypting the drive first before removing it and then drilling BIOS/Firmware chip is one of the best data-protection methods that exist. Alternatively, companies that have critical data and need to be 100% should be using a Hard Drive Shredding Machine, they cost as little as $10K and will shread anything, from CDS to Hard Drives, and printed documents.
Thank you for sharing your insight. Won't encrypting multi terabyte drives take a long time? I encrypted a 5TB ext on an older laptop and it took 10 days.
@@cfldriven I don't recommend using any laptop for data encryption on a 5TB drive unless its a Intel 7th Gen i7 or above. For Desktops, most Intel processors after 2017 will speed up the process greatly. This is due to AVX512 and AVX2 which essential is hardware acceleration which will greatly decrease the time needed to fully encrypt it. But it's important to note that a Intel Atom with AVX2 is going to be much slower than a Xeon with AVX512. AMD also have h/w instructions in CPUS made after 2017 as well (Ryzen)
@@SimonHayter Now you tell me. lol
Could I destroy the platter by running a metal file across it a few times?
Any damage you do to the platter will decrease the chances of data recovery. Thanks for the question and for watching.
Finally how "collecting" still means to most that u never use them. Lol
I really don’t get which part actually holds data. You say the drive parts can be disposed of in different trash bags, but what part holds the data and how will different disposal bags help if one undestroyed part can fall into someone’s hands?
Each of the platters holds data. In multi platter drives the info is written across all the platters, thus separating prevents recovery of all the info. If you have sensitive data they're are better ways erasing it without the need for drilling or taking a drive apart.
an arc welding rod straight through the case and platters in a few places is very quick, and very very destructive :)
I bet that is, you should make a video of it, although not a common tool for most of us.
@@cfldriven When you first learn to arc weld, you discover very quickly that it's too easy to blow holes through metal until you get the technique right ;)
About 3 seconds to feed a welding rod right through the case and platters with molten metal splattering all through it. Very satisfying, but yeah not something that everyone has. (and you do need to put on a bit of protective gear).
@@NeilMcAliece Wow! Thanks for sharing your technique.
Ignore the magnet haters. This was helpful
And to think magnets are so attractive. ;)
what could one use the magnets for ? I got a box filled with old and older still hard drives , I could take them apart instead of just dumping them whole :-)
They are great for holding things like calendars, notepads, etc. I always keep one by the tool box as they are helpful when searching for dropped screws and nails. Can be used for magnet fishing (google this), where you drag it through a stream looking for metal objects.
LOL. I have some of those magnets too. They hold up lots of pictures on the fridge!
I worked for someone that had us disassemble the cases, remove the platters and set them on the ground and bend them up with a hammer.
Thanks for sharing, they are also great for finding lost screws and pins.
Old hard drives make good shooting range targets.
Sounds like fun, but we're not allowed to do that at the indoor range. Thanks for sharing.
Ok, that's great....but how do you open it if you don't have that special screw driver? I tried everything and can't get it open so how do I destroy it? Is there another option for those who can't open it?
Thanks for the question, the Torx bits and drivers are readily available at any hardware store. But let say you don't want to spend money on tools for just one drive, other options could include using software to wipe the drive clean, repurpose drive to store music or old files, smash it up with a hammer or sledge, drill a couple of holes completely through the platters, or use it for target practice. Of course if it just full of love poems to your ex HS sweetheart just drop it off at the recycling center.
@@cfldriven Haha, thanks....I was hacked badly and my computer was completely compromised. This is the second computer it's hapoened to in a few months. It would not allow me to do anything not even delete files, get into my C: drive etc or even format.. So I've decided I want to destroy it. Would hammering really do it? I mean it's so solid. I have to destroy the other one also.
@@IncubusOfDeath Do you need to destroy it if you and no one else can access the data? While the sides and bottom are solid, the top plate will succumb to heavy blows. I'd wear safety glasses and gloves. When you start hearing parts rattling around you've succeeded.
@@cfldriven Thank you! Yes I just feel the need to destroy it just in case.
What about RAM? Can’t seem to find any good videos on how to properly wipe/destroy/dispose of them.
RAM needs to be energized to hold information. Once power is lost it is wiped out, thus why you have to wait for computer to boot up as there is nothing in ram from previous session. Now ROM can hold on to info, but it instructions like in the BIOS chip.
Crack the card in half with two pairs of pliers. Don't use your bare hands because you'll get cut up. Once the chips fall off, you're golden.
I too save the magnets when I kill an HDD. They are crazy powerful......much better than average magnets.
Just be careful if you have two or more together. They can easily snap together with great force and if you fingers are in the way you can cause an injury.
I have 2 laptops I want to throw away and I don't have a drill. Do I just destroy the CD looking round part inside the hard drive so no1 can access anything I had on it? I'll smash up the laptop itself with a hammer too is this all I need to do. Thank you
If the laptops are still usable consider repurposing, selling or donating them. If not then drop them off for recycling. Just remove the hard drive destroy the internal discs. Disc can be made of glass or metal. The glass will shatter while the metal will bend and tear.
@@cfldriven tysm :)
The controller cards are linked to the platter so swapping would in many circumstances not work
No they are not, just look up data recovery.
You'd think the people drilling into the hard drive would take the top off first and drill directly into the disk, seems that would be the minimum you should do if you decide to go that route.
Probably because it involves finding the correct Torx tool and going through the processing of removing them all. They could have a least drilled all the way through the drive, but again it someone taking the easy way out without the proper tools. Thanks for sharing and watching.
@@cfldriven Well that's my dilemma too really, I've got an old hard drive and was going to pop the top off, but I'm going to have to get a "torx tool." I guess if you can't see the disc or get the top off you could always drill uniformed holes all the way through all throughout the drive so you know there are several holes in it.
@@robertkees6048 Definitely numerous ways to wipe out a drive from using software to brute force. Be careful with drilling.
@@cfldriven I put a hole all the way through my hard drive, just to one side of the spinner, and afterword, you can see the hole in the disc and the it still spins so you can see the hole you've made. I just drilled one pilot hole and then I spin the disc and put several holes all the way through. One hole in the drive, several holes in the actual disc. It was easy and also easy to verify the mission was accomplished.
@@robertkees6048 Talk about thinking outside the hard drive case. That is a smart approach to drilling a drive. Thank you for sharing that.
Just inscrew the top off the drive, pour a capful of lighter fluid on the platter, and then hit it was a butane or blow torch for 10 seconds. Game over and no way of recovering it.
Informative video...thanks!
Question: Some paper shredders can accept CDs and DVDs. Are the platters similar in composition so that they can be shredded as well?
Platters are usually metal or glass, so it will probably ruin your shredder. Instead make a wind chime or scatter each disk in a separate garbage bag. Thanks for the feedback and viewing.
Attempting to shred a platter with a small shredder is never going to happen.
Could you not remove the case take out the platter then snap the platter? Cus then surelllyyyyy its unrecoverable
The individual platters are more likely to bend as they are metal. You could bend them all up, or just make a wind chime out of them.
@@cfldriven Is that all hard drives? I put some platters in a bench vise and they shattered when I tightened down on them.
@@1RungAtATime Where they from a laptop? Most laptops after 2015 use glass platters. Most desktop tend to be metal platters.
Hi, I love magnets. What are you using the Hard Drive magnets for?
Thanks!!!
Magnet fishing, holding up items, and retrieving items in hard to read places. How about you?
MN
@@cfldriven How do you assemble these HDD magnets, in order to use them for magnet fishing?
Thank you. Very informative.
um drill all the way through and you will not have issue . just make sure you drill in the right spot. put the drive on a block of wood then drill all the way through into the wood done
Thank you for sharing a good solution.
I’m just going to light my old 7 drives on fire 🔥
For some hot data!
@@cfldriven I also have a 8tb hd seagate that I was cloning brand new that was on the floor my girl accidentally tripped over the wire and it disconnected during install and it was over after that it made the spindle noise when I turned it on again and never had a chance to even use I wanted to put her in the hard drive just to delete her lol
@@allinonethegreat What where you thinking leaving all those cables and hardware on the floor, while your girl was free ranging in the same area? I once came home to my toddler sliding on my LPs on the floor. He had destroyed a half dozen by the time I walked in.
@@cfldriven man I was so pissed lol
I've been looking for a good way to render my old hard drives useless... but then got caught up watching keyboard cat. But... I'm guessing this was informative....sooooo....
it wasnt, it was actually bogus
@@KableTac eh, somewhat. It depends on how good of a job you do. I’m gonna use it for target practice, so if they get the Windows 7 OS off of it after I ensure the platter is cracked, they can keep it, since I’d already be dead.
I've got a couple of old laptops whose hard drives I wanted to destroy. You've made an excellent case for NOT drilling holes through a hard drive/case. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear you found the video useful. I tend to re-purpose my older drives and the ones I can't get disassembled. If selling or donating a computer I include a hard drive that has been wiped several times and formatted with a new OS so that the computer is useable. Thank you for the feedback.
No he didn’t. You must not have critical thinking skills.
@@johnhill762 Apply your own critical thinking skills and make your own video that presents evidence to the contrary.
Thank you!
We appreciate you watching.
What about keeping it in water for a day or so?
Salt water would be better.
Lava Would be better
@@user-iq7xy8is3f 😄
If you drill your hdd make sure it goes all the way through the front and back
If you open a hdd it will break so you can do what i normally do which is open it, hammer the shit out of the disk and the header, close it. Then power drill all the way through, and if i really want it gone, beat the shit out of the controller.
Thank you for sharing your tips.
What value is that magnet to you ? You’re harvesting magnets ? Why ?
You can use them for securely holding things in place, magnet finishing, retrieving screws and other metal parts from carpeting, grass etc.
Use a razor blade scraper to peel the hard drive sticker off to get to that last screw. I took my drive apart in five minutes. Very easy.
Good idea, thank you for sharing your tip.
@@cfldriven after watching your video, I decided to take your approach. The other videos that show smashing desktop hard drives with a hammer and then shaking it as a means to prove that the disc is shattered is not true. It could be the green board that shattered! After I opened the drive and took out my disc I decided to take a hammer and punch pin to it. Guess what...the punch pin just punched a hole into the disc, didn't even shatter, crack or anything. My disc is resilient because when I took two pliers to snap it in half.....it just bent, no shatter. Any- hoot, thanks for posting and saving my drill and drill bits.
@@johncollins7044 thank you for sharing your insight to an issue that has a multitude of solutions.
if anything you need to drill into the spinning bits
Yes without drilling through the internal platters this can be a poor solution. Thank you for watching.
what if i take the platter out and smash it to bits
It will be easy if the platter is glass, a lot harder if metal. You could make a wind chime out of them or use them as coasters. Thank you for watching.
@@cfldriven , i guess an angle grinder will soon destroy it
@@josephcroft4268 Yes an angle grinder would allow you to cut it up, but probably a lot less dangerous just to open it up and deal with the individual platters.
i mean you can see exactly where the platter starts and ends on the plastic side to drill through
I think the trick is to make sure you drill through all the platters, or use some other technique to wipe all the data.
I wipe it (DoD), disassemble, then drill the platters. If anyone gets my data, they deserve it.
Its not like we have such dark deep secrets, well except for that computer.....
I drill hard drives all the time. The difference is that I do a competent job drilling them!
Good to hear you're doing a thorough job, curious to know if you're using a drill press or just hand drill? thanks for watching.
@@cfldriven I wipe them first when possible using shred and then put them on the drill press.
All disks are fully encrypted from the day they are commissioned as well.
@@MrDeviousdom If they are encrypted and you wiped them clean why destroy the drive?
@@cfldrivenbecause the drive is old and will fail soon.
@@MrDeviousdom Thank you for sharing the response.
Another way would be to shatter the platter and place the pieces in different soiled diapers.
Hmmmm, a little extreme and possibly messy.
I think if you put the platter in a microwave for a few seconds thatll do it.... they light up real good in there
Thanks for the suggestion, but Mrs might not take well to blowing up her microwave.
@@cfldriven It works pretty fast and does not damage your microwave... ruclips.net/video/lKd92oU9ivs/видео.html
@@happycamper3455 Actually the video only proves that a CD-ROM or DVD will generate an interesting light show. I'd advise against putting any things in a microwave oven that it wasn't designed for.
@@cfldriven I agree dont do this but its plain to see the CD was destroyed
What I did is grab wood plank and get the sledge hammer and wack it 5 times really hard then get the drop saw and cut it in half. Done :) Takes legit 2 minutes
Are the five wacks needed as you plan to cut the drive in half anyway? Thanks for sharing.
Oh I only use the saw just in case some how the plates are still good
The best way to protect data is do low level format
I found using software to wipe the drives clean works without having to resort to destruction.
Not true, drilling a hole is the quickest way, get a nice sharp drill, drill off center to avoid the motor, and drill all the way through. Data is toast
Bob that you for sharing your tips.
Watching this after I definitely missed the platters like huh turns out I'm a giant idiot. Guess someone might be able to recover some pics of my dog, some nudes of my ex, and some cringy highschool poetry.
You know the poetry was pretty good. ;)
@@cfldriven 😳
Thanks
And thanks for watching.
I drilled a dozen holes and called it good enough.
One hole would have discouraged me.
He forgot to microwave it!
I got to open the HD, just to discover that the torx on the spindle are smaller than a T5, I fucking hate every single tech company, why do they have to make these obscenely small screws?
I recently experienced a similar issue when taking apart a laptop hard drive. Got lucky and found a bit driver that had the smaller torx. Thanks for sharing and watching.
Torx screwdriver #7 and #8 needed
Here is a tear down of a hard drive with the tools needed. ruclips.net/video/YD0dmNpiWYs/видео.html
My method of killing a hard drive is to just drive a nail completely through a drive, a hammer and nail is all you need in order to kill it.
If it was truly sensitive data, this method would still leave partial data readable. OF course for the rest of us, this sounds like a good solution. Thanks for sharing.
50 bmg hit that this will never work again
Maybe it gets recycled into a coaster.
Hey there! We sell tons of hard drive destruction equipment and are wondering if you want to have a promo link in your description to earn some commission?
Would be interested in seeing what products are avail.
@@cfldriven We have hard drive crushers, shredders, magnetic wands, and degaussers. Degaussers send an EMP thru drives. You can take a look here: www.whitakerbrothers.com/hard-drive-destruction-1 Thanks for replying! My name is John. I do a lot of the demo videos at Whitaker.
Physical destruction is the best method to wipe a hard drive you just have to make sure you drill the platter. lol
It definitely a great method, I prefer to re-purpose them when possible. Thanks for watching.
No biggy --- drill holes should be drilled into the platter --- simple as that
Rick, it can be that simple, but some folks get it wrong. I prefer to repurpose the HD instead of trashing drill bits. Thanks for watching and sharing.
10 drive drillers clicked thumbs down. lol.
Maybe it is the wrong bit?
You didn't really prove your point.
I guess the point was there are better and definite ways of wiping out a drive and drilling one would be last on my list. Thank you for watching.
You're camera setup is really making me sad
Poor mans setup.
"Your".....
Drilling is okay if you actually drill the right spot. You just used poor drilling efforts to try to show that drilling is bad. So this video doesn’t really prove anything. If anything, it just shows that people should be more careful about “how” they drill.
Actually in the video I mention how I got these drives from the IT dept, I didn't do any drilling. Which goes to show even the experts can get it wrong and thus proving the point. I agree everyone needs to be more careful especially if drilling a hard drive. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you for this. I didn't know missing the platter was possible.
Ridiculous. Drill more friggin' holes!
Just got to make sure you go through the platter(s).
Do you realize that some of those old hard drives could contain Bitcoin?!?
Would think anyone who is mining, would be extra careful not to leave any Bitcoin on their drive before discarding. If there are bitcoins left on a drive, don't you need password to do something with them?
@@cfldriven A few years ago an IT guy accidentally discarded a hard drive with over 7000 Bitcoin. To this day he's still trying to get permission to dig up the landfill. So even tech savvy people make mistakes. The original Bitcoin wallet stored the data on a file called wallet.dat and that's what you should be looking for. And apparently there are ways to hack that dat file even if password protected/encrypted.
@@trollking99 Thanks for sharing your insight into HD leftover Bitcoin.
drilling into hdd platers wont destroy data,i worked on police,and even if you drill hole most data gets recovred
Thank you for sharing your experience. I guess the real question is for most law abiding citizens, are less drastic steps (overwriting, encryption, re-purposing drive, disassembly, etc) offering enough protection?
HOw can the data be retrieved if there are chunks missing from the disk?
👍
Thank you!
Just hammer it while it works
Hopefully not in the computer.
It will damage the drive but most of the data would still be recoverable.
@@cfldriven I mean it's easier to do than drilling. But I guess the most effective way to destroy it is using a sandpaper and deeply scratching all the disk surface or burning.
@@ozmobozo Lots of ways to destroy data, I recently read there is some software that will wipe the drive and destroy the hardware it so it can't be reused.
misleading title
Actually not since there are better ways of eliminating data on the platter. In this case someone thought they went through all the platters and these were safe to dispose.
Thanks for watching.
"I like to collect magnets from hdd's" man you are the weirdo of today
Never thought of it that way. They do come in handy. Thanks for watching.
I take them to the gun range :-)
Bang, Bang, out go the bits.
So basically drill a few extra holes to be safe
Not necessarily more holes, just deeper holes to actually go through all the platters.
Another Mr Robot wipeout.
Nooooooooooooooooo, Mr Bill!
Dumb clickbait title. You can drill through a HD to kill it, just hit the platters, not the spindle and not the board.
The IT person that did this was not trying to kill the drive, they wanted to prevent data from being recovered. Since they didn't go through the platters the data would have been recoverable. The point of the video was to show there are better ways of wiping the data off a drive without drilling, but that if you insist on drilling then its like you say through the platters.