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How to kill hard drives fast and simple

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  1. #1
    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    How to kill hard drives fast and simple

    I said in another post that I will get around to doing a video YESTERDAY...well I did it..just did not get to posting it on here til today.



    I hope it explains everything very simple and easy. Killing the drives like this will keep the high dollar amount of the drive since you wont need to open it and or drill a hole.

    My company name was Easy Recycle but has since been closed
    My Name Stephan Harz
    My YouTube page

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    EcoSafe's Avatar
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    thanks for the vid: however I have customers who believe you can shread a disk and it can be recovered, odly enough most of them are computer repair people and shops. how do I convince them. ?

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by olddude View Post
    thanks for the vid: however I have customers who believe you can shread a disk and it can be recovered, odly enough most of them are computer repair people and shops. how do I convince them. ?
    Have them give you a hard drive...grind the sucker up and ask them to get one bit of data off of it...if they can...pay them $50,000 each or something dumb...there is no way in hell you can get anything off of them once it was shred.

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    EcoSafe's Avatar
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    I know its stupid. too uch csi and ncis on tv.

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by olddude View Post
    I know its stupid. too uch csi and ncis on tv.
    Give it to them as well...

    Hell putting a egg back together would be more simple than a hard drive when smashed.

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    Good information. Thanks.

    Am curious why you and the others work on the floor. Looks painful.

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    Quote Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper View Post
    Good information. Thanks.

    Am curious why you and the others work on the floor. Looks painful.
    yeah, buy them some chairs and a table. Or at least a nice bench.

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper View Post
    Good information. Thanks.

    Am curious why you and the others work on the floor. Looks painful.
    We don't...I was using the floor for this video as it was dark outside *we would do this outside with a bigger hammer most times so it would only take one well placed hit* but had to do it inside due to it being dark.

    The female in the back that you saw is a "free" hand...she loves to come up and "hang" out and brake things apart and spend time with her husband who works for me. He is my "manger" and if I am not there runs the day to day.

    The other guy who walked by...is just one of the few "random" people who come out and think its fun to bang on computers....they work for free as well lmao...I never know how long they will be there or how much work they will do...but its all up to them. I have a coffee pot they are more than welcome to along with the companies lunch/food stash. Some of "manages...ok his name is Colin like to go up and "play" to

    At times I do hire them when I have the money - the work...but even if I don't...they will still come out...just to do it.

    anyway...getting back to the point..I have tables and we have stacks of computers that we use as tables until we get down to the last few (never happens)..it was night time...and we where just waiting for pizza and killing some time

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by parrothead View Post
    yeah, buy them some chairs and a table. Or at least a nice bench.
    I have alot of chairs...just need to get them out of the unit but there are around 5 chairs there now...I have another 13 or so more that I got from a office clean out.

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    as long as any part of the platter remains intact and undamaged it can be read. requires some special equipment and requires that there is any data to be read on any of the sectors still intact.

    my customers are concerned about the number of platters being sold on the open market for 'platinum' recovery. you see them on ebay a lot. those platters can easily be read. more customers are now concerned that their drives are being dismantled and the platters are actually being left intact for resell. which means that all of that data could be recovered.

    you can not blame them for being concerned. they do not want any those platters to survive. one of the reasons more companies are requiring r2 or similar certification is the auditing process. it shows exactly where those drives went. from the time they were picked up to the time they went into the smelter. it shows serial numbers, weights, process', transportation, etc. you have to look at this from your customers perspective. regardless of how you may feel about their fears, they want to know with absolute certainty that their drives are going to be destroyed. if you can not provide that level of security they are looking for, they will find it else where.

    it is all about providing service. either you can or they will find someone who can.

    nothing odd about the professionals being concerned about possible data recovery. they are more aware of the capabilities of recovery than anyone else.

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    No there is nothing odd about being concerned and wanting to know very will what is going on. But as noted once the disk is very hard. Those selling unbent disks on ebay can be read as they could be cleaned...but even then they are scratched and alot of the field they where closed is now gone. The plating thats on the hard drive is very thin and damages very easily.

    When it comes to the hard drives we get...they are sent to a smelter inside closed boxes that are sealed before shipment and seal is to be unbroken. We ship our scrap like that becuase we do ship out raw gold (jewelry) from some shops around here and we don't go saying what pallet has gold..and what one dose not...best to keep as many people clueless as you can. But the point is..can the data be read..yes..will it...no

    Look at it like this...are space ships real? Yes they are.
    can you build one in your back yard like that one movie that the name just jumped out of my head...no..why..its not worth it.

    On another note...hard drives have more than one disks....not one disk will have one file...all disks on the inside will have parts of the file...reason being..if one disk fails it COULD be replaced and not as much data missing (data recovery..been there done that) so you would need MOST if not all the disks and even then it may not work at all because the disks are damaged.

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    You said something about the hard drive losing value if you take the cover off? Do you mean they are worth more sold as full units than as disassembled parts?
    Yeah that's great and all...but...CAN I SCRAP IT!?

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by CanIScrapIt View Post
    You said something about the hard drive losing value if you take the cover off? Do you mean they are worth more sold as full units than as disassembled parts?
    your right...we opened this one to show you what it looks like once you push the motor into the hard drive like we did.

    Once you open it you kill the price....if you leave it as a whole unit we are buying them at 60cents up to 75+cents based on how much weight you have.

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    You forgot to say that if we open them they get contaminated (by dust, etc) and makes the refining process longer...so you don't get paid as much. Did I get it right ???

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    I was unaware of this! :s But we ARE allowed to smash the motor in, correct?

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dumpster-Dee View Post
    You forgot to say that if we open them they get contaminated (by dust, etc) and makes the refining process longer...so you don't get paid as much. Did I get it right ???
    sure are...and wow people do remember what I say lol.

    Thats the short story but another reason why e-waste buyers do not like them to be opened...not only is the refining is longer but ontop of that we don't know if something was removed or added....so if the seal is removed...there could be dirt or rocks or something inside of them...so once they have a drill whole or the seals been broken...we don't really know what we are buying as we all have been jerked around once here or there.

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    easyrecycle started this thread.
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    Quote Originally Posted by CanIScrapIt View Post
    I was unaware of this! :s But we ARE allowed to smash the motor in, correct?
    Yes you are correct. You can hit over the disks if you like to try to brake them but doing that...you can "punch" a hole right into the drive...dropping the dollar amount of it...so the motor is a sure bet.

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    Or simply wipe the platters with the HD magnets, I don't know of anything that can survive that. Just bring a vhs/dvd up close to a working speaker and the info on there is totally gone.
    P & M Recycling - Specializing in E-Waste Recycling.
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    Can you exand on this. I was opperating under the assumption that e-waste dealers wanted the boards and paid up to $10 per pound. The rest of the HD is either Al or Stainless which could be sold as well as the magnets could be sold on ebay. I'm new to this and trying to run the numbers. I would happily send you the HD full with motor smashed if it saved time and made more money.

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    Quote Originally Posted by easyrecycle View Post
    Have them give you a hard drive...grind the sucker up and ask them to get one bit of data off of it...if they can...pay them $50,000 each or something dumb...there is no way in hell you can get anything off of them once it was shred.
    Not true. A drive that is not degaused and just shredded can have the data recovered using an electron microscope. The data will not be complete but the pats that are not fully destroyed can have the info read. Though the process is 100's of thousands so it's not something any one will do.

    http://reclaimtech.com/
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