It will render a drive inoperable but really sophisticated labs could in theory recover data. Its better to think of Data Destruction in terms of risk vs. intensity of data destruction procedures.
Warping the platters, shredding them so the area of the pieces is smaller than a single block of data or degaussing will eliminate the possibility of recovering data however it will no longer be usable. Wiping a drive with a program called Secure Erase or similar techniques plus a verification step where you confirm there is no original data is just as effective but leaves the drive operable. Most low security hard drives, i.e. the general public, would need only a few drills holes as one would only employ sophisticated and very expensive recovery techniques on drilled platters if they were certain there was data worth stealing on there. PM if you have anymore Data Destruction questions, hope this helps.
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