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  1. #1
    Scrappah is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    Quote Originally Posted by bcrepurposing View Post
    as a tech and recycler, I agree with the others. wipe and test. Leave the personal data alone. the liability to both reputation and finances just isnt worth a few moments of jollys.



    I will only open a couple items when a data recovery is done, and that is only to prove successful recovery and done with permission.

    at any time I am trusted with many peoples private and financial data. this is a trust with your customer but more than that the legal aspect can leave you out of business and paying for a stupid mistake for years to come.

    now as for destruction of data, in therory even the punched drives are recoverable, its just a matter of cost and time. you can split the platters in half and still recover them. the only way to truely destroy the data is to turn them to slag.

    thermite and a good torch can assist in this. by turning the entire drive to slag nothing is recoverable except metal alloys. even drive wiping is recoverable to someone with the skill and tools. granted it is beyond the skill and finances of the average person but if given the reason to the government has both to waste. so do some computer firms and a few average joes.

    as a preventive step if you do not wish to shred or slag them open them and use a demagitizer on platter and put them on a belt sander with 40 grit or lower. you want DEEP gouges that cant be polished out again.

    the boards can be repaced from the same brand & type of drive so that isnt really a fix to the problem. It can slow recovery but if make and model are know is rendered basically pointless.

    holes though a drive prevent the average person but are a delay tactic at best.
    I agree .... Don't break the trust !

    I've heard that it's possible to recover data from disc fragments but that seems pretty far fetched. It's more the stuff of urban legend and government conspiracy theory.

    Have you ever tried to repair a crashed HDD ? It's precision piece of machinery. The easiest fix would be a firmware bug but if you're going to open the case you need a clean room, 20k in equipment, and some pretty specialized training.

    Call me nuts but i see a business opportunity here. Open up a computer decommissioning service. For a 75.00$ service call you go to a customer's home or place of business. You remove the front cover of the HDD and hand the customer the platters to do with as they will. You remove the computer equipment from the premises with the guarantee that it will be properly recycled.

    Kinda beats making 75 cents to a buck for breaking down a hard drive in your workshop.

    Edited to add: Woops .... just read the other hard drive thread and it's already being done. Kudos to those who help others with secure data destruction.
    Last edited by Scrappah; 06-28-2014 at 02:09 PM.

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    Any scrap yard owner that knowingly sells hard drives to someone that is taking data from them should be shut down. Ex specially if it's an employee! Just because people don't erase their data it does not give any of us the right to invade their privacy. When people take stuff to a scrapyard they are under the impression that it's going to be destroyed ! Unscrupulous practices only hurts the industry we are all so passionate about as a whole. If I were your employer hmburner you would be looking for another job. And I would find a way to blackball you from working in any other yard. The one thing that drew me to join this forum was the integrity of the senior members and top contributors on here. Contrary to the old saying, one bad apple "can" spoil the whole barrel.

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  4. #3
    Mvpvlad is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    wow i dont go on this site s much as i used to but dang! haha well guess im not getting the music anymore i havent bought the usb thing yet i mean im still buying it next week to wipe the hard drives. but i will say this what people post to my posts i cannot control so please dont comment about the stuff hmburner said. also i clearly said i am not going to look at pictures or any personal records of any type. its music its just like if i was to get an xbox 360 with predownloaded games on it i can play the games without lawsuits. Also they toss the towers in a bin nobody actually knows where they go after the bin and also its just like somebody throwing away metal you turn it into money well i would be turning the hard drives into music. i am not going to do it but i also dont get why the big co-motion like i said somebody throws out a cd the cops dont arrest you because you didnt pay for it.

  5. #4
    Sirscrapalot's Avatar
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    Big difference in between a music CD an pillaging someones Hard drive for music in my eyes. Your being trusted to destroy it, not take ANYTHING off of it.

    You want free music? Learn about torrents once again. I suggested this before. Get all you like..for free!..lest your not violating someones privacy an setting yourself up for trouble if you are ever caught at it. Or again...Join IHeartradio or Pandora...every song, genre, whatever.
    Both are free, ya know.

    You can do as you like your a big boy, but there is more then enough ways out there to get music without going through someones hard drive. An this ain't all about what HM posted, folks were telling you this from the get go.

    An yes you can obtain just about any music you want...for free.

    Sirscrapalot - You can call a pig a duck all you want, but it's still a pig.

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  7. #5
    Mechanic688's Avatar
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    Sirscrapalot - You can call a pig a duck all you want, but it's still a pig.
    Even with lipstick,,,,

    P & M Recycling - Specializing in E-Waste Recycling.
    If you enjoy your freedom, thank a vet.

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  9. #6
    Mvpvlad is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    okay i would just like to end this whole thig on this note this was more of a how do i do this and what are your thoughts on this and by the mass vote haha i will only be wiping hard drives oh and i found out my sister had an external hard drive if anybody finds these the have a converter in them except its only laptop hard drives

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    Scrappah is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    Okay ... well ....you really don't need all that fancy USB stuff. You can just attach a HDD to the ribbon cable of your tower and use it as a secondary hard drive. You might have to adjust your BIOS settings but otherwise it's pretty straight forward.

    There are a couple of reasons you might not want to bother:

    1: Not everybody has the same tastes in music. Maybe the music files on someone else's machine would be of no interest to you.

    2: These pc's are on the junkpile for a reason. About 1/3 to 1/2 have some level of malware. Sometimes the infection is so bad that it's the reason the machine was tossed in the first place.

    To use an analogy: attaching a strange HDD to your machine is kinda like hooking up with someone you just met in a singles bar.

    You just never know....you might end up with a virus infection that's hard to get rid of.

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  12. #8
    Sirscrapalot's Avatar
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    lol..

    I can see it now..

    "Condoms for your computer! Save your self the cost of testing for malware, virus, an other computer related FTDs!"

    I bet that'd be an awesome Durex commercial...or Trojan.. (they really do have some funny ones)

    Someone market this! I'll be happy to accept a 35 pack of cold beverages for providing the awesome idea.

    Sirscrapalot - We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. - Ronald Reagan

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  14. #9
    Scrappah is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot View Post
    lol..

    I can see it now..

    "Condoms for your computer! Save your self the cost of testing for malware, virus, an other computer related FTDs!"

    I bet that'd be an awesome Durex commercial...or Trojan.. (they really do have some funny ones)

    Someone market this! I'll be happy to accept a 35 pack of cold beverages for providing the awesome idea.

    Sirscrapalot - We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. - Ronald Reagan
    < Gentle laughter >

    Humm .... I don't know .... This might be one of those situations where you wouldn't want a TROJAN on your hard drive.






    ie: worms,viruses,rootkits,trojans, etc.
    Last edited by Scrappah; 06-30-2014 at 12:42 PM. Reason: Fix typo

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    My business offers "guaranteed data destruction" And I obey it. It makes customers feel better about using your business if they can trust you.

    No music or files are worth loosing business, reputation, cutomers, respect.

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  17. #11
    parrothead's Avatar
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    Actually, copying the music is illegal as well. When someone purchases music, they are purchasing it for their use and not to pass around for free use.

    We try to stay on the up and up around here to maintain the aspect of a legitimate scrapping forum that holds itself to higher standards because we want to project that and teach it to new scrappers.

    We are the future.
    "64K should be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates 1981
    http://www.treasurecoastelectronicrecycling.com/

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    parrothead's Avatar
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    I'll add one other note here. Many of the computers that I get have the hard drive removed. There are however many channels that I have that bring me fully functioning computers. I can usually tell from first glance if there is anything in there worth testing and reselling vs. selling as scrap. (i.e. RAM power supply, CPU, etc.). If it has components that are worth testing for resale, I will fire that unit up right there and test everything out. I won't poke around in someone's files. Not that I never have, I have just grown in my understanding of privacy and respect that and what it means to the business of recycling.

    It comes down to this. In the business of recycling, we all need to understand the importance of privacy and hold to that. Whether it is directly requested from someone handing you a computer or it is a computer that you find on the side of the road.

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  21. #13
    Sirscrapalot's Avatar
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    That's what makes it so funny!

    Trojan man to the rescue for computers that have trojans!

    Careful what network your computer attaches to, never know what they got. Come in for a free screening!

    Ha ha..someone could have fun with this.

    Sirscrapalot - Highly entertained.

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  23. #14
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    hmburner - If you want to look at my hard drive (or any), you might as well invite yourself into my bedroom. Get an eye full, hope you sleep dreaming on the curb and in the gutter of your filth! Privacy is private, yours and my privacy should be respected and protected by all period.

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  25. #15
    snapperhead is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    That is just so funny, Thanks SSA, for giving my imagination something to play with, I just wish I had the spare time to bring your ideas to fruition on Photoshop. Electronic prophylactics, what a concept.

    HDD's are as private as your own wallet, so this really is a discussion on personal morals and ethics. If you are happy looking through drives, taking what you want, and disposing of rest, then you are like a policeman who would pick up someones lost wallet from the side of the road, take the cash and cards for yourself, and toss the rest in the bin.

    We are in a position of trust, and the choice to honour or betray that trust is yours and yours alone. Do the right thing folks !!!

    I am one of those scrappers of e-waste that is also doing the recovery and refining of the precious metals contained in them, and I do not want to see my supply of raw materials shrink because of trust issues in the industry, or myself.

    If this kind of information and data theft continues, then people will trust us as much as sending their kids to a Michael Jackson kindergarten.

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