Bitcoin Forum

So basically a few weeks back someone mentioned about HDD mining. And I remember I got a box of HDD which I couldn’t liquidate since there is no market for used HDD.

I got tons of these HDD. Some might have some private keys, some might have other private info. So I need to wipe them however wiping a 500gb hard drive with 1 and 0 a few write cycles can take like 12 hours.

So wondering what is the best way to destroy all the data without actually wiping it?

Do you really want to erase the data from the discs, then try to sell them in second-hand markets? Or do you want to destroy the disks completely?

If you want to completely destroy hard disks, the best way is to destroy them. For example, you can use a drill and drill holes in the disks, that way nobody will be able to use them. Another way is to use a hammer and break the disk. This can even be a real exercise to relieve stress. ::)

If you just want to erase the data, to be safe to sell them, unfortunately you really have to do an individual cleaning.

One suggestion I can give to minimize having to rewrite the entire disk is to encrypt all the information on the hard disk. And after encrypting format the disk. It may not be as efficient as rewriting it, but it will be very difficult for someone to recover that data.

You can see how to do this in the following tutorial:
https://www.cloudwards.net/how-to-encrypt-your-hard-drive/

This method can save you a few hours doing it individually. Give it a try to see how it works.

Just put them all into your oven and turn it on for an hour. Problem solved  ;D

Do you want to use these hard drives later or not?
The fastest option is physical destruction, but I would connect 2-6 hard drives overnight and format them using a special program. Then these hard drives can be used for mining farms or sold.

I think he still needs the hard drives, he probably just needs the data in their completely destroyed so that It can't be recovered with a good data recovery software.

Another solution is to create new wallets and sweep funds off the old address whose private keys you suspects might have been written in the drives.

Just write new data up, is more easy in that way...

I'm totally in favor of this solution instead of destroying some HDDs unnecessary.
Later you can use these HDDs for some data storage, for 2nd or 3rd backup, to mount PCs for someone of your family, or even to use as a media center in you home.
I use some old HDDs here to keep a clone of my system in case of a crash, and I use in my company as a second backup of files.

How many HDDs do you have?

No I just need them destroyed. I tried selling them like 5 years ago and no takers.

Most likely they don’t have any private data on them but I honestly don’t remember. I can connect to a computer and read the data but there is just too many of them and it’s time consuming. So I just want the quickest way to destroy any data and throw them in the bin.

In that case, if the idea is to throw them in the trash, invite some friends and have fun with sledgehammers and drills.
You're going to have a really fun morning destroying things!   ;D

Then, to finish off, a good convivial lunch to share the experience of relieving stress and screwing things up! Everyone likes to break things! ::)

I'm against destroying work equipment. Even in my country they pay me about 0.5-1 dollar for bringing this equipment for recycling. But for 3-4 dollars these hard drives can be sold, and if you have 100 of them, then this is the price of a good video card. You do not need to spend time checking, but simply turn on the formatting mode with the impossibility of data recovery. You will spend 5-10 minutes on this in the evening.

To be honest and without much efforts, you can use a hammer to destroy the hdds, or a drilling machine to make one drill in each HDD
Simple and efficient
Just be careful to not harm yourself and do in a safe place without any other people or animals around.

It will be almost impossible to recover any data

I also have quite a few old HDDs ranging from 320gb to 500gb which I don't want to throw in the trash nor am I planning to use them anytime soon. I'd suggest you to wipe them clean and overwrite them with large files or with a utility. The latter is far quicker and easier option. There are quite a few out there you can use for free. All data will be overwritten beyond recovery. If they're perfectly functioning it's a shame to throw them away.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/free-hard-drive-data-wipe-software-009.html

Back in the day when I used to buy dead drives from local stores and rebuild them.......  destroying them was pretty easy.   Ran them over with a car a few times you will have a low probability of recovering anything after that.   HD baseball....and platter frisby.. 

More seriously, delamination of the platters is all you really need to achieve to completely destroy data with no hope of recovery and as mentioned an oven for a few hours at 300 degree will totally achieve that.   But so will ruining the platter with a car which is more fun.

so will a bench grinder/wirewheel to the platters surface or a angle grinder... a tig arc welder.(will super heat and delaminate the platter pretty much instantly)...the list goes on.   Seriously gigantic electro magnets can scramble data but some of it might still survive. 

Still wondering...

What if as soon as you have permanently destroyed them, a project comes up where you can earn something awesome off the the old drives? Have you thought about that?  ;D
If you have enough space, keep them for then next few years, you never know mate. You don't want to be like this chap ( The quest to find $181 million in bitcoin buried in a dump (https://www.businessinsider.com/james-howells-threw-away-bitcoin-dump-masterplan-get-back-2022-7?r=US&IR=T)) and many more others I have read about.

I am keeping some of the larger capacities but the smaller ones like 250gb or less I will honestly not have any use for it.

Maybe in certain countries they are worth selling but in Canada they are just not worth the hassle. You can maybe get $10 max for it and they will maybe buy 1 hard drive. If someone bought all of them for $10 each then I would sell them.

But it’s not worth answering emails, setting up appointments, waiting for them to arrive, just to make $10 is not worth the effort.

Not an expert, but grabbing a large magnet and dragging it over the HDD should do the job.

Yes, this can be an interesting solution. But buying the necessary equipment to effectively degauss is very expensive.
In addition, special care is needed when using this type of equipment, as they can even damage equipment that is not intended.

There are some equipment, which are drawer-type systems, which provide greater safety in their use. But I think paying more than $3~4k is not very viable for this case.

So I took one of the drives apart and it took a long time. Maybe like 20 mins or so to get all the platters off. Once the platters are off they are easy to destroy pretty much.

However the time involved to taking just one drive apart is too time consuming. Regarding the drill, I got some crappy 20 piece drill bits from harbor freight for like $10. Last time when I tried drilling into metal the bit just shattered.

Will probably downloading that program and just wipe it during the night.

Yeah, the drills have to be of good quality and for iron. In addition, it is advisable to use a drill support, to make drilling easier and not have to use so much physical force. Usually for lower costs and physical effort is to use a sledgehammer.

Using the software is a good solution, you just have to have the patience to put the program to work overnight.

open the lid and pour acid.

wear protective equipment, maybe leave the acid there? put the lid back on.

some of my rigs are on 80gb HDD and now 500gb are worthless LOL

Does anyone know what the material of the platter is made off? I was thinking it would be easier to just take off the lid in front of the drive, basically what is covering the platters and just throw the entire drive into a bucket full of water and salt. Within a week depending what material it’s made off it should completely rust away.

Regarding the acid. No idea where to buy acid or even how much it would cost. I think it’s better just using salt and a large bucket of water.

The easiest way is mechanical damage to the platter. After that, the data cannot be recovered. Magnetic destroyers of information do this in a few minutes, but then the hard drive can only be given away for recycling. Acid is very dangerous and you need a special acid suit.

This can really do some damage, but there is always the possibility of recovering some information, with the right equipment.

You want a quick service... the best way is to damage them with a sledgehammer.
Another solution is to go through a construction site and ask a machine to go over them, they were impossible to recover.  ::)

I also have 80GB HDDs in my rigs, I can't imagine why someone want to destroy working HDDs 250-500GB...

In some markets this capacity is too low to be traded. For 10$ you can get 1TB pendrives, why buy a 500GB disk?
Recycling should be encouraged, but not even that.

I also have very old 80 GB hard drives on mining farms. Linux systems do not need more than 16 GB. And for the long 7 years of mining, there were no problems with them. If smart hard drives are good, then they can be formatted, if not, then it's better to recycle.