Comments on: Holiday Hackit: Automated hard drive destruction

By: l33tkr3w

l33tkr3w — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:20:11 +0000

Im surprised I have not seen this option yet.

1. Take the drive and cover it with a thin layer of plastic wrap.

2. Spool copper wire around the drive.

3. Connect each end of copper wire to a switch that is connected to an outlet or large capacitor.

4. When you flip the switch you create a large electromagnet which in turn kills the drive.

Should work like a charm, and not so dangerous.

By: the hatchet

the hatchet — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:50:51 +0000

install windows……….

By: twohawks

twohawks — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:56:56 +0000

Good discussion. The concrete thing made me laugh the most I think.

What happens to a drive if…
1) You hook AC up to it directly?
Effectiveness?
How would you hook it up?

2) You wrap wire around it to (sort of) turn it into an AC electromagnet? If this would work…
What guage wire and how many wraps?
AC hookup configuration needed?
Effectiveness?

If either of those would be potentially effective enough, it could make for very simple, quick, and practical means.

3) For encrypted volumes… I would think that if you destroyed enough, or even only some, of the data on an encrypted volume, then the key would become useless, yes?
If true, then I would think that drilling a couple holes, or any otehr super simple method for partial destruction of data integrity should suffice.

By: think_alien

think_alien — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:02:32 +0000

throw it into wet concrete watch them try and dig it out for 3 hours only to find they have destroyed it with the jackhammer it took to get to it
or
set the pladders with a few propane tanks set up a fire on top and poor some lighter fluid on it and a line leading to it lite it and run like hell

By: Bronwyn the Master Technomancer

Bronwyn the Master Technomancer — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:15:53 +0000

Feasible way:
If you’re just wanting an automated data security option, then set aside a “secure” drive (separate from your “main” HDD to stop your system performance taking too much of a hit), and use a whole drive encryption with a ridiculously long encryption key. It’s actually easier than most people think to come up with ways to give yourself password reminders that mean nothing to anyone else.
Depends on how paranoid you are really. Normal good encryption solutions will do to deter the average data thief.
For secure data destruction, if the drive is working, stick it in a computer running a zero-fill program over it in an infinite loop, then forget about it for a day.
For drives that aren’t working: electromagnetic scrambling on exposed platters will do something similar.

Or for those who want an extreme/impossible/comedy solution:

Home-made railgun ;) lol

By: Grey

Grey — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:53:33 +0000

Sorry about the double post.

About Dookiestick’s comments.

They actually sell fireproof hdd cases now that are connectable to your pc by usb cable. Might be a good option for your device.

By: Grey

Grey — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:49:17 +0000

Unless the drive disks are completely destroyed (i.e. ground to dust, melted to liquid state, or dissolved to no more than 20% original thickness), there are ways of recovering data from them. Though not always 100% effective.

They best way I can see of destroying data effectively on HDDs would be to have a setup that could quickly write over the entire drive capacity repeatedly, while having programing to tell it that all data previously on the drive is available space.

The absolute most effective way I see of destroying hard drive data is to switch to solid state drives. These can be easily destroyed in a grinder or by placing in a furnace. You could even manually dismantle them and just bash the chips with a hammer till they’re dust.

Not quite as complicated to destroy as the old school drives. :)

By: dookiestick

dookiestick — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:37:26 +0000

all these methods sound amazingly inventive and useless. unfortunately for the 13 year olds who came up with the ideas, the DEA/ feds who would be interested in dismantling and reviewing you hard drives will get around most of these methods.
I am a big fan of hydrogen. I would have a compressed hydrogen canister inside the pc case, with a tube distribution to the interior of each hdd. Each tube would have a flash arrestor, as well as an electrical spark ignition at the midsection of each hdd. – Probably should use 5 inlets per hdd, just to be thorough. Flip a switch- bye bye bye. Given that a hydrogen torch of this type will melt a 3 inch wide hole straight through a charcoal briquette as well as same through 1/2″ plate steel in a matter of 3 seconds, it would be highly effective. In short, you would be left with a melting heap of liquified hdd. Unrecoverable, unrecognizable, etc. Yes, the hdd would be junk, probably the whole pc/ firebox, but, your police record an innocence would remain intact. Probably good to put a compressed nitrogen tank inside as well, to cool things off, after the melting process is all done, say after 20 seconds, self activated with timers and all that fun. All of the above should be located in a separate, in the wall, in a fireproof box/ safe, whose access is easily hidden by a picture frame, etc. Enjoy !

By: Agent Barebutt

Agent Barebutt — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:51:58 +0000

Effective data drive destruction must be automated (by tamper sensors or zone alert) since efforts by evil agents to seize data will occur when you cannot intervene. Drive and destruct device should be constructed in a concrete vault or temporarily hidden area that will allow at least a few minutes to assure full destruct before interference from agents. I’m thinking along lines of high amp battery/inverter/microwave to destroy USB flash drive and possibly a computer/motherboard to assure RAM kill as well.

By: assembler

assembler — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:10:34 +0000

They sell a CO2 canister jaws of life that is single use.
All you need is one of those rigged up with an actuator.

Manually? I’d inject PCB etchant

By: nash

nash — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:01:44 +0000

there seem to be a lot of people wanting to hide stuff from
the feds… i’m a little worried.

By: Electromancer

Electromancer — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:04:52 +0000

Simple - Plasma Arc Furnace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_arc_furnace
All you need is 2 or 3 graphite rods, some wire and a big red button labeled "Danger! Do not push this switch."

By: pack

pack — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:34:59 +0000

how about pass electricity thru it ?? that will get rid of the magnets right ?

By: Graymatter

Graymatter — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:22:57 +0000

i wonder if injecting ferrofluid onto the platter would have an effect. at the very least it would spread evenly across the surface and be VERY difficult to remove (if even feasible) as well as preventing it from being read.

it’s also cheap and stable. just let it get sucked into the breather.

By: bonzai

bonzai — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:31:42 +0000

the best way to “legally” erase the data on the harddrive using an automated method, would be to use a custom made hex virus. write one to randomly spit out some messed up random bits and have them scattered into files and blank area. then using the virus you could get it to fragment the files on your hdd. now of course when your using a virus of this potential, and with instructions to move data. you will need a bit of time before its “task” is complete. if your using modern parts and software, you should have it done in approximatly 5mins, depending on size of the disks, partitions and other processes running at the same time.

im no expert on writing hex code or virus to be exact. its just an idea more than anything