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by Chambler
Original Article

the only way you have a chance of retrieving any data back is using a clean room and a magnetic force microscope. With that kind of kit you should even be able to recovery data from the drive if it's been attached by a hammer.

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Quite a lot of laptops these days have hard drives with glass platters. You would prolly struggle to extract data from these even with the correct kit.

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by Tycho
Quite a lot of laptops these days have hard drives with glass platters. You would prolly struggle to extract data from these even with the correct kit.

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True, a hammer would probably be more effective on the glass / glass-ceramic composite platters in comparison to their aluminium counterparts. Although we are not talking about your average windows plain glass here.

Although the glass platters would probably shatter / splinter when a hammer is applied to the hard disk I'm not too sure about the glass-ceramic composite ones as normally when these composites are used they are selected especially for that particular reason. Although with sufficient force I'm sure they would break, I'm not too sure if they would shatter / splinter, leaving you sufficiently large chunks to work with. Maybe Which? can test that for their next edition?

(Edited by Chambler 08/01/2009 21:52)

i think the whole point of the "hammer" idea is because the average computer user wouldnt have a clue how to wipe their system - the whole concept of data removal/retrieval tends towards the geeky, and who is going to admit to being a geek??

although i must admit, having the tools to do a data retrieval job for people whose hard drives have died does tend to bring in the occasional bit of beer money...

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by mad
although i must admit, having the tools to do a data retrieval job for people whose hard drives have died does tend to bring in the occasional bit of beer money...

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Yep, you would be amazed how much data can be retrieved from a hard disk that has died. Especially if you have a pretty much identical drive available to swap the PCBs out.

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by Chambler
(quotes)
Yep, you would be amazed how much data can be retrieved from a hard disk that has died. Especially if you have a pretty much identical drive available to swap the PCBs out.

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Yeh, did that once to one that had caught itself on fire. Got all the data off fine.

Also I think that killing the hard drive with a hammer is a perfectly valid method of destroying the data for the average member of the public.

Why would they want to research & then buy or work out which free software is going to be good enough to do the job when you can just take the lid off, bash it with a pointy hammer or drill through the thing a few times & toss it in the metal skip at the local recycling centre.

(Edited by Tycho 10/01/2009 15:20)

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by Chambler
(quotes)
Yep, you would be amazed how much data can be retrieved from a hard disk that has died. Especially if you have a pretty much identical drive available to swap the PCBs out.

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ive never had to do that, but ive used various bits of software to make a bit-by-bit copy of a drive, or failing that, chucked it in the freezer for a couple of hours...

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by mad
ive used various bits of software to make a bit-by-bit copy of a drive, or failing that, chucked it in the freezer for a couple of hours...

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Yep a couple of freezer bags and a couple of hours in the cold does miracles to (most likely) aluminium platter drives. This will indeed resolve the issue for the majority of hard disks failing. The PCB swap you would only end up doing in examples like Tycho's or when the power supply blew and took the hard disks with it, as in those cases it's most likely the PCB that got fried.

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by Tycho
Also I think that killing the hard drive with a hammer is a perfectly valid method of destroying the data for the average member of the public.

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The average member of the public does not have the proper screwdrivers to open a hard disk casing and actually smash the platters inside. Not to mention the health and safety risks of drilling into a metal case (Next years headline - "Preventing Internet Fraud is leading cause of blindness" )

I have nothing against this method when a drive / computer is actually at the end of its life. However a lot of computers nowadays are replaced long before their technical or economical lifetimes have passed. A lot of these computers can be given a perfectly good home again either to friends / relatives or even some local charities. Although I know that hard disks are relatively cheap nowadays and for 20 - 30 quid you have a decent sized replacement hard disk the big problem with this is that OEMs nowadays put their recovery files solely on a hidden partition on the drive.

If you only "killdisk" the OS / Data partitions on the drive and leave the hidden partition alone it not only doesn't cost 20 - 30 quid in a new hard disk it also saves a lot of time and hassle in trying to put the correct OS / Licenses & drivers back on the machine for it to be re-used.

By physically destroying the drive the computer it came with becomes pretty useless. While in most cases will still be perfectly good for office work and internet use.

Not only do you create a financial hurdle for the machine to be re-used but it also means the machine can only be (legally) made fit for purpose again by someone with reasonable technical computer skills most of us people do not have and would have to source from somewhere. In effect this means that "hammering" the disk in a lot of cases also means the entire computer ends up scrapped, long before it actually had to be.

If they had only wiped the OS / Data partitions with the proper and even freely available software all it would have taken would have been hitting crtl + F11 (in the case of Dell) and run windows updates to put the machine back in a usable state - which I'm sure is much better for the environment than scrapping the entire thing.

Maybe we should make it mandatory for OEMs to provide a certified wiping tool that automatically wiped everything but the recovery partition? Doesn't really cost much and would give people the tools to prevent fraud and recycle the computers properly. Although I guess the OEMs much prefer people having to buy new computers instead of recycling old ones. But that's what laws are for....

(Edited by Chambler 11/01/2009 12:07)