Old Hard Drives? Trash Them!
January 4th, 2008There’s a great piece at Brainstorms & Raves on why it’s a good idea to thoroughly trash your old hard drives.
I can’t really think of much to personally add to Shirley’s breakdown on the subject, except to say that I am also first-hand experienced in how easy it can be to retrieve “deleted” information from a hard drive, fully functional or otherwise. I’ve been able to retrieve my own information with everything from simple un-deleting freeware and forensic recovery software, to slaving from another computer or shipping to off-premise recovery specialists. If somebody really wants the data on your drive, all it takes is some thought, some quick Googling, and - sometimes - a little persistence.
To add to the collection of video links at the end of the article:
- Tutorial on removal / replacement of Dell hard drive
- Tutorial on removing Macbook hard drive
- Tutorial on removal / replacement of IBM Thinkpad hard drive
- Somebody’s home video tutorial on hard drive removal and replacement for their friend
You can find a few links to other similar YouTube video tutorials from each of those pages.
Once your hard drive is removed, feel free to destroy it with your favourite method of aggression! (This might be a good time to work out any unexpressed issues with annoying bosses, irritating coworkers, or frustrating clients, by way of catharsis. Protect your data and your sanity.)