Cheap Bulk Eraser for Hard Disks?

cute-boy asks: "Recently I had to replace some hard disk drives from the same batch which had failed, while still under warranty. Because the drives were no longer recognized by the SCSI controller, it was not possible to erase the data on them. In view of the sensitivity of the data contained upon them, and the chance this was still forensically recoverable, our company decided to buy new drives rather than risk the disclosure of their contents by returning then to the supplier. How would you non-destructively (physically) destroy data on a hard disk without access to a bulk eraser? Obviously in this case it's a bit late to be thinking of using encryption."

Why no physical?

[daeg]

Why are you against physical destruction? Let your IT department have a field trip to an abadoned parking lot with some sledge hammers.

If you've got your heart set against the physical

[voice_of_all_reason]

...and they can be quite fun... I guess your only option is to open up the new drives, swap the platters, and erase the data that way. Then swap the platters again if you wish so that they're (technically) new again.

Never tried it myself, though everyone on the intrawebs largely agrees that there are legions of the mighty dust army waiting breathlessly for you to crack open the drive so that they can invade it. There is apparently no invention of man capable of withstanding their attack, meaning a high possibility that if you perform this operation and then plug the drive back in, a single dust atom will be all that is needed to whir around frantically in the formerly pristine environment, loosing the veritable fires of Hades on your poor machine until it erupts in a wild, flaming mess, sending shards of platter in all directions to seek the soft flesh of babes and women.

So yeah, they don't recommend doing that.

Re:Physically destroy the platters

[ryanhos]

Won't that just round the corners off the windows and smooth out the text so it doesn't look so BuMpY?

Re:Why no physical?

[hey!]

At my workplace we had a couple of these for the express purpose of erasing hard drives, and following the instructions we waved them on the outside of the case and found they did nothing. We even opened the case of one hard drive and placed the magnet directly on the platter, leaving it there overnight. The PC with that hard drive rebooted without any problems.

Obviously you failed to placate the God of Technological Peversity.

As a result, yoru computer has become a revenant. Expect it to show up in your bedroom some night playing Paris Hilton MP3s over the computer speaker.

Next time, sprinkle fresh chicken blood on the platters and let it sit for a day. I gurantee the computer won't boot.

Re:Why no physical?

[markhb]

Dude, you work for an organization that can cure acute constipation remotely, just by sending a letter. I would be very surprised if there were a deal you couldn't work out.