To make a HDD useless

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billubakra

Conversation Architect
Hi guys,

My friend has a 10 years old pc. A scrap dealer in my city is giving 4k for any pc, the only condition is that all the parts like ram, hdd etc should be there whether it works or not does not matter. Now my friend wants to give his old pc. How to make the hdd useless without damaging it? Say corrupt it or idk something so that no one can retrieve any formatted data from it.

Thanks
 
L

Lincon_WD

WD Official
Hi billubakra ,

I agree with dashing.sujay, you can write zeros to the drive which will fully erase the data.

I am posting a link below for the instructions:

Support Answer


After erasing all the data, the drive will still be usable.

Hope it helps.
 
OP
B

billubakra

Conversation Architect
Thanks [MENTION=86068]dashing.sujay[/MENTION] & [MENTION=295989]Lincon_WD[/MENTION]
The thing is that the system is having 256 or 512 mb of ram. The HDD is 40 or 60 gigs. So, I think that it will take days and not hours as mentioned in those threads. Is that the only alternative?
 
dashing.sujay

dashing.sujay

Moving
Staff member
billubakra said:
Thanks [MENTION=86068]dashing.sujay[/MENTION] & [MENTION=295989]Lincon_WD[/MENTION]
The thing is that the system is having 256 or 512 mb of ram. The HDD is 40 or 60 gigs. So, I think that it will take days and not hours as mentioned in those threads. Is that the only alternative?
Click to expand...

That's the "best" alternative from security point of view. Otherwise you can always format normally.

There are many tools available to erase a disc. You can try them out too.
 
L

Lincon_WD

WD Official
Hi billubakra,

Once you will start the low level formatting you should be able to see the progress indicator.

You can determine the estimate time based on that.

Normally to erase 1 TB hard drive it takes approximatly 8 hours. In your case it shouln’t take more than 1 to 2 hours as per the capacity you have mentioned.

Hope it helps.
 
Zangetsu

Zangetsu

I am the master of my Fate.
billubakra said:
Hi guys,

My friend has a 10 years old pc. A scrap dealer in my city is giving 4k for any pc, the only condition is that all the parts like ram, hdd etc should be there whether it works or not does not matter. Now my friend wants to give his old pc. How to make the hdd useless without damaging it? Say corrupt it or idk something so that no one can retrieve any formatted data from it.

Thanks
Click to expand...
take out the HDD and keep a strong magnet on it for 1hour may be
or open the HDD and exposed the internal to Air
 
Hrishi

Hrishi

******************
Zangetsu said:
take out the HDD and keep a strong magnet on it for 1hour may be
or open the HDD and exposed the internal to Air
Click to expand...
This may/will render the HDD unusable but might not necessarily destroy the data on it. If someone wants he can recover the data from the platters ( the method generally used in labs ).
Using zero writing method is best for removing all sorts of data traces from the drive leaving no chance of recovery.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk
 
Zangetsu

Zangetsu

I am the master of my Fate.
Hrishi said:
This may/will render the HDD unusable but might not necessarily destroy the data on it. If someone wants he can recover the data from the platters ( the method generally used in labs ).
Using zero writing method is best for removing all sorts of data traces from the drive leaving no chance of recovery.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Who will recover the data from billubakra ? The Kabaadiwala or CIA ? recovering the data from Labs will cost more money and its not 100% guaranteed to get the data.
 
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