3 holes with a screwdriver through the platters (and casing).

 

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This type of destruction is a huge waste of money and resources. Anything hit with a decent wipe utility like DBAN is gone for good.

The only downside I can think of is the amount of time it can take if you use a multi-pass method and the HDD is extremely large.

"Darik's Boot and Nuke (commonly known as DBAN) is an open source project hosted on SourceForge. The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with random numbers generated by Mersenne twister or ISAAC (a PRNG). The Gutmann method, Quick Erase, DoD Short (3 passes), and DOD 5220.22-M (7 passes) are also included as options to handle Data remanence.

DBAN can be booted from a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive and it is based on Linux. It supports PATA (IDE), SCSI and SATA hard drives. DBAN can be configured to automatically wipe every hard disk that it sees on a system, making it very useful for unattended data destruction scenarios. DBAN exists for Intel x86 and PowerPC systems.

DBAN, like other methods of data erasure, is suitable for use prior to computer recycling for personal or commercial situations, such as donating or selling a computer. In the case of malware infection, DBAN can be used before returning a disk to production.

The DBAN project is partially funded and supported by GEEP, an electronics and e-waste recycling company."

 

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Some of us have restrictions and mandates we have to abide by (top secret clearance, medical). We know the 1's and 0's are gone. But Uncle Sam demands more. Personally it's OK with me.

 

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Long as you understand that he is that weird uncle that drinks a lot and enjoys wasting money.

 

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Haha. Indeed my friend.

 

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