Cleansing hard drives with fire

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Cleansing hard drives with fire

Totally melted and gone, like a beer can.
0
No votes
Metal enclosure, platters, and axle still there, all electronics burned away.
2
67%
Other
1
33%
 
Total votes: 3

GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

The kind with spinning disks.

I put 3 of them at the bottom of a small bonfire, today. I wonder what 3 hours of furnace heat will do to them

Predictions? I will probably check the pit tomorrow.

edit - And, if the platters were recovered, do you think they would still be readable? I have no way to test this part, just speculating.




Edited By GORDON on 1444355892
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Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

No way they're readable. If you're going to kill them, I recommend cracking them open and snagging the magnets inside. They make normal kitchen ones look weak.
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

Malcolm wrote:No way they're readable. If you're going to kill them, I recommend cracking them open and snagging the magnets inside. They make normal kitchen ones look weak.
Oh yeah, I took pics today. Will post them later. The answer was a bit of all 3 options.
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

Here's how I found them. Note the fact the circuit boards still exist, I figured they would have been gone.

Image

Here's one, note you can still see the arms, but the platters seem to have melted away.

Image

So basically we are left with partial enclosures, some of the moving parts that were inside, and some brittle circuit boards. When I pulled the 3rd one out of the ash I found it connected to a cooled river of some metal that had run off, pictured underneath the drives, I am guessing it is the platters. There wont be any data recovered off of that.
Image

Anyone know offhand what a HD platter is made of?
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

Other - Release a shit-ton of toxic fumes?

The platters are aluminum.
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Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

TheCatt wrote:Other - Release a shit-ton of toxic fumes?

The platters are aluminum.
A normal campfire should be able to burn hot enough to liquefy that.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
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