Just wondering how people here, have found the most cost effective way of hardware destruction. I was thinking of picking up a drill press...
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Just wondering how people here, have found the most cost effective way of hardware destruction. I was thinking of picking up a drill press...
If you're offering data destruction up as a service, it's hard to go wrong with a $30 drill from Harbor Freight and a 3/8" bit. Cheap, fast and easy. I would take the high-grade board off the drive *first*.
If you're into that sort of thing, when you dismantle them there are some pretty powerful magnets inside that apparently have value on the eBay market. The magnets are powerful enough that you definitely don't want to get your fingers pinched between two of them.
--Geoff
You dont really have to destroy the drive, to destroy the data.
A program like DiskWipe will do the job, and then you can re use the hard drive, or even sell them.
Ballpien hammer...one hit on one side one on the other should crack the platters. You can do it without removing the boards if you are selling them whole.
Ballpien hammer trick sounds do able. Destruction will be the only way for a potential client in talks with, there a pretty large bank with lots of branches out my way. I have to add security cage, and safe in my warehouse to house the information till destroyed also.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeorgeB
Not if the drive is inoperable or the customer specifically pays for their drive to be destroyed.
Well, yes, that is true. However, he didnt say anything along those lines. He just asked what was the easiest and cost effective way of destroying the drives.Quote:
Originally Posted by drozenski
I was simply making the comment, that if all their wanting is to destroy the information contained on it, there is an easy way of doing so.
I am with you on the page, that if a client requests that the hard drive be destroyed and not just wiped, then I will do that!
Either way, I am going to make money off of it.
Ballpeen hammer does do the job but takes a lot of arm power and you can tire out easy if you have a lot to do. Also you can't be 100% sure that your hits broke every platter. For what you are talking about I don't think its a very good option. THe best option for what your talking about I think would be the log splitter that people talk about on here. You can crush 2-3 drives at a time all for the flick of a button.
To maximize your money you could take the boards off split them in half with the splitter than separate the aluminum and stainless and magnets if you wanted to. If you didn't want to fool with it take the boards off split the drives and then sell it as breakage. If you wanted to give them proof take the serial numbers of the drives down when you pick them up then take pictures of the drive crushed with the serial number visable.
I was thinking log splitter too. Is that a safe alternative way to do it indoors?
Thanks all for opinions...
As long as it's not a gas powered.Quote:
Originally Posted by MvPElectronicRecycling
Documentation is probably the hardest part of destroying a drive for $. A video is the best for proof of destruction. Security cameras from tiger or even from harbor freight might do the trick. Mount the camera on a stand above the splitter and show the complete action. Then give them a thumb drive or dvd of the process. I want to make a small shredder, but I usually need that money for food or gas.
Just thinking out loud here, but do they make a metal cut-off type blade that can fit on a 10" chop saw? Build a jig that will hold the drive (or 2-3 at a time) then cut them in half. Probably can do this off the back of a pickup on the customer property if drives are already removed or easy to remove quickly onsite. I would guess that it would do the trick. I also know they make a big machine that grinds hard drives into small pieces, but do they make a more economical one that would allow onsite destruction? I was thinking that during an ecycling event i could hook one up and run it every 30 min...let the kids throw them into the bin and watch it do its job. Kids (and some of us scrappers) love to see destruction in action :)
I personally shed a tear every time I have to destruct a perfectly good hard drive that 120gb or bigger for desktops, but especially for laptops. LOL
Yep! I've used those for years on an old 10" Ryobi miter saw, works like a charm. You can also find them which fit circular saws, or maybe use the 10" one on a 7" saw after it's worn down a bit, not positive if the arbors are the same thoughQuote:
Originally Posted by shendog
Im thinking a bench mounted metal sheer would work just fine. Or even a small hudrolic one?
Look into this or something similar.Quote:
Originally Posted by MvPElectronicRecycling
4-Ton Electric Log Splitter-RY49701 at The Home Depot
This will be enough to destroy 1 drive at a time.
I have a gas powered one and can crist 5-8 at a time. They work great. Just make sure you wear safety gear. things go flying!
I want to see a video of this :)Quote:
Originally Posted by drozenski
Ill see what i can do this week. But my splitter is burred behind about 4 tons of equip. The poor thing hasn't seen the outside of my garage in a month.Quote:
Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper
Returning to this thread as I was looking at ramping up my services based on a few new large clients I have obtained. A shredder is financially not viable for me, but I have seen people compare using a shredder to "killing and ant with a tank". The simplest way I heard is to drill 3 holes through the platter and circuit board. This brought up a couple questions for me:
1: Will drilling offer a level of security that might be acceptable to compliance groups (like R2)? Or do they require a more dramatic approach like crushing/shredding?
2: Has anyone done this and had any problems selling the drilled circuit boards at the same cost as non-drilled boards?
3: If you have done this, what size drill bit is effective and what locations on the drive do you drill?
Drilled boards go under the category of punched hard drives at about 60% of the value of non punched hard drives
Actually here is the deal...most places that need "compliance" documents for hard drive destruction (hospitals, financial institutions, law firms ect or places with customer info)...have to have a certificate of destruction...you have to be able to generate one and the easiest way is to use a certified prpgram to wipe the drive...these wipe it to DOD standards (7 passes typically). Then you can generate a COD for their records....you charge them for that and if the client requests full destruction the easiest way is to open the drive and then drill the hard drive platters....get a metal cutting bit of any decent size and put 4 holes in the stack. If you can do just the data destruction, then do it and resell the drives if it tests out (get a multiple type hard drive external tester from amazon for about $20). If you have to drill it then separate the parts and scrap. Now you need to CHARGE for each type of service....and the best part you can also charge for them to get a copy of the COD if they lose it if you bought that service through the software company.
Pm me if you need info or links...my brother works in IT and I am about to start offering the service to my 1st client...a major hospital in my area.
we currently use one of these. Portable enough to transport to customer for onsite destruction as well. We charge $5 per drive destroyed and they can inspect before they leave the premisis
6 Ton A-Frame Bench Shop Press
Do you press it into a flat, or into an angle of some sort? Be nice if that thing was powered, what if you had to do 500 of them?Quote:
Originally Posted by directrecycle
It has a half inch or so bar that press into it and punches a hole thru it or sometimes breaks it in half. They do make electric ones as well but they are larger and less portable. If they wanted 500 destroyed I would hire another guy, buy another machine and have them go to town.
Not mine but shows it the same way i do mine.Quote:
Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper
log splitter wood splitter vs harddrive - YouTube
Has anyone tried powering one up and drilling through the Al side untill you heard the distuction of the platter(s)? I had yet to try it out but think this would produce a nice rattle sound and satisfy the destruction requirements. This would also alow for easy removal of the board for ewaste recycling. Mike.
Again I woukd do the certf of destruction where you can save and resell the drives for.many places....they will be worth FAR more resold than as scrap....5-20 TIMES as much...I would only do the physical destruction as a last resort since scrap hds are not huge money when recycled. Just sayin....most of the programs to run are not that hard to learn.
WeBuySelland Trade is correct......I do not resell hard drives, but I have many accounts that we have to destroy data for. I have a wiping station and then issue a certificate which states that all data has been destroyed and is non recoverable and the actual hard drive will be shredded by an approved R2 or E steward facility within the next 30 days
I have never had an issue even once going that route. I don't think I would accommodate a customer at this point that wanted me to physically destroy the hard drive. Being incorporated and having the proper licensing and a website has been good enough for all my accounts so far. If I have an account in the future that wants the hard drive punched I would pass it on to one of my customers who will do that and then buy the scrap from them..
We are Hippa certified also which helps when dealing with doctors and similar facilities also so that may be why I don't have any issues with just wiping them.
Also I don't charge ever. I think its a great idea to do that but I have set my company up as a we will never charge anything for a pickup or handling of material . I have mentioned before though that I am in the center of a e waste city that has at least 6 R2 facilities within a 30 mile radius so I do things based upon factors others might not have
To sum it up though I agree with WEBUYSELLTRADE STUFF
For what it's worth, the new HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and ACCOUNTABILITY Act) imposes fines of $250,000 per occurrence for any breach of data that can be pinned to you. Most medical facilities are requesting drives be shredded in the presence of someone from the medical group. Banks and financial institutions are under similar requirements, although the fines are about a 1/3 of HIPAA. Still very steep. There are almost a dozen different federal laws dealing with data loss and related fines so we feel it not worth the time and risk to sell hard drives.
Breaks my heart, but we degausse (magnetically erase) EVERY drive as soon as it comes in and the serial numbers are recorded in our database along with where they came from. Boards are then removed and we use a 5 ton log splitter fitted with a bracket to hold the drive and a 1" punch that aligns with drive motor. About 2" of travel is all that is required to punch the motor into the drive housing and shatter the platters. From there they are sold as Al. breakage. If requested, we will process drives at the customers location and we can provide a DVD of the process for a small fee. A Certificate of Destruction is standard and lists the serial numbers of all drives destroyed and manor in which it was done.
Short of spending $10,000 for a drive shredder, this offers the best risk management for the least amount of time and money. I know some the people on here erase drives with approved multi-pass software, but for us it isn't worth the time.
Finally, it goes without saying that a good liability insurance policy is in order.
Do you charge for the basic service of degaussing and punching? If so, how much per drive?Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRecycleBin
That's why I don't resell hard drives from anyone .................
With the hard drives being erased with the software, when you format the hard drive, there is still traces of data still left on the driver, some hackers, and or people who know what they are doing can get a program that allows them to find these tid bits of data and connect them together and get the data that was on the drive. So formatting the drives isn't the safest way to do it!!!! I suggest destroying.
If you want to offer a hard drive destruction service you are going to need to invest in a good hardy metal shredder. I believe the US Government has min requirements on hard drive construction that are iso compliant. I know that the pieces have to be reduced to a specific size. Most people who are serious about wanting the hard drive destroyed so the data cannot be retrieved are going to request what is called proof of destruction. If you are just drilling holes into a hard drive plate information can still be retrieved from the spaces between.Quote:
Originally Posted by MvPElectronicRecycling
A hard drive platter records information in blocks, that are laid down in tracks of magnetic information. Because information is recorded in blocks, one turn around a hard drive platter might contain several bits of information from several different blocks. So reducing the size of the shredded material to a specific size, makes it impossible to recover the information because even the smallest block of information will be destroyed.
Scott
I am thinking the only thing really requiring physical destruction are the platters. Anyone ever think about belt sanding the platter surfaces somehow. Run them through like wood through a planner. I think they make sanders on a similar concept. Maybe a cheaper belt sander with some type of holding/guide fixture.....just thinking out loud.
because you'd still have to handle the hard drive disks, which would leave traces of info on your fingertips, and after you're done with the job, you might be inclined to go party, get drunk, and maybe slap a dancers ass, which would get you fighting with a bouncer, arrested and fingerprinted, see where we're coming from? Then in 10 or 20 years your prints have been digitized, and some hacker is cleaning out the police garbage and lifts the info from the hard drives from your fingerprints, busted! Of course we'll prolly all be gone on by then, but they can still get a court order to come dig us up(and you don't even wanna know what happens then)Quote:
Originally Posted by Victor
I'm wondering if the platters are all aluminum or glass, why they don't just pull and incinerate them?
Bear..just..lol.
We think things are bad now, imagine what will happen if what Bear said comes true!
Sirscrapalot - When I go I want my tombstone to read "Do not disturb, or I will haunt you!"
Melting the plates down is a novel idea. The problem I always run into when I make a transaction where destruction is required is that the customer wants proof of destruction. I recently purchased material from a Silicon Valley manufacturer that required proof of destruction, and specified shredding specifically, and then wanted a sample of the material after shredding to insure the shred was their material. If you incinerate there is no way to tell what the incinerated material is, I think this is why this method isn't used by customers requiring proof of destruction.
Some government agencies shred their own material, and you can purchase it off the government auction sites already destroyed, and some require the customer to destroy it, and provide proof, still others require a government official to represent the destruction so they have an eye witness.
It's a crazy world we live in, nobody trusts anyone anymore, so sometimes you have to jump through hoops to get an otherwise very simple task done, just to insure you are keeping with the owners requirements.
Scott
We use an arbor press with a solid spike that goes down through the center of the hard drive. This leaves the board intact. This has met any standards that our customers have requested. This has held true from manufacturing companies to Schools and Hospitals. With the one we use, we can do up to 4 drives at a time, although 3 is much easier. Arbor presses are really inexpensive. I had the opportunity to buy a large one on GovDeals, but the standard presses work fine. Actually the standard presses are much easier to take to a location with you. The spike can just be made out of a large chisel. we welded a sort of a open box to the base of our that you put the drives in. All this does is stop the drives from going up when you retract the press and leaves the drives on the base. Even without the box you can just push the drives off of the spike with your hands. If that does not work for you, you can tap them off with a hammer.
Arbor presses are available in a lot of places. They are generally very inexpensive and look professional. I will post a pic of one here so you know what they look like.
This is not the only solution. It is just the solution that works for me. The drilling them would not work for me because it was way to messy at my customers locations.
I also have tasked the local community college engineering department with building me a degaussing machine using electromagnetic field. They are building it for the cost of materials and the experience of learning how to build something useful and unusual.
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Originally Posted by msearl3244
If that's your son or nephew i apologize now. But How DAM! It's summer time and that boy is white! Get him out in the sun stat!