How to dispose of a hard drive

Disposing of your old hard drive properly is crucial as most hard drives today contain a wealth of personal documents and personal information from your photo collection to potentially sensitive financial and secure information like credit card statements, account passwords, and more. Many people simply toss their entire computer into the trash when buying a new one, leaving the hard drive ripe for the picking for anyone who may be interested.

The concern with safely disposing a hard drive is mainly due to the fact that simply throwing your computer away or throwing the drive away does nothing to protect the information on the drive. A savvy thief or curious trash picker can simply hook up the hard drive to another machine and access most if not all of what you've left behind on the drive.

One way to safely dispose of your hard drive is to simply delete file by file everything on your hard drive before getting rid of it. Not only is this boring and time consuming but it does not guarantee that your files are all completely deleted and remaining information could still exist on the hard drive. The best way to ensure anything on the hard drive can never again be accessed is to physically destroy the hard drive; not only is this foolproof but it is also fun to do.

All you need is some protective goggles, a power tool (a drill is generally recommended), some gloves, and a safe place to smash up a metal object such as your hard drive. If you don't have a power drill you could always use a sledgehammer but beware of flying shrapnel from the hard drive. With your hard drive removed from your computer, lay it on a hard surface or one that has holes in it that you aren't worried about potentially damaging. Secure the drive to this surface or hold if firmly in place and begin drilling holes into the drive. You need to make sure that the drill penetrates the casing and hits the actual disk inside, you can ensure this 100% by watching the drill come out the other side. Make at least 3-4 holes in the drive and you'll have effectively made the drive permanently inaccessible.

If you don't feel comfortable doing this, don't know how to find and remove your hard drive, or otherwise have better things to do; there are services that will for a small fee destroy the drive for you. Many computer stores and computer repair shops will do this, and some computer companies will take drives back for destruction at little or no charge. Checking online or with your computer manufacturer is the best way to find a service to do this for you.

And there you have it; an easy, fun, and 100% foolproof way of destroying your hard drive in preparation for disposal.