[canuck_conservative]

See also the follow-up article below.

[Lurker]

Here's what I do with old computers:

Step 1.) Defrag drive.

Step 2.) Run PGP Wipe at DOD Spec 4 times.

Step 3.) Remove hard drive and expose to a large magnetic field from a 5 pound horseshoe type magnet.

Step 4.) While hard drive is out of the computer, strike it repeatedly with a claw hammer until it is rendered into tiny pieces.

Step 5.) Sweep up tiny pieces of hard drive and toss into either fireplace (winter) or back yard fire pit (summer).

Step 6.) Build large roaring fire in either fireplace or fire pit depending on season.

Step 7.) Take carcass of computer to gun range and invite friends to 'have at it' with rifles, pistols, and shot guns.

Following these seven simple and fun steps will assure that your personal data doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

L

[RichardW]

Hard disks make good target practice. Otherwise, remove them and be sure to destroy them. They simply are too cheap today to take any chances. Office Depot has a special on 100 gb hard drives for only $20 this week.

I have a couple hundred floppies that I need to dispose of. No way am I going to allow them to reach anyone else. I would shred them if they would fit in the shredder but I'll probably burn them.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

for later reference

[jamaly]

BUMP FOR LATER

[Northern Alliance]

Anybody serious about this topic should read this: Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory.

[George W. Bush]

Some excellent FReeper advice here on disposing of old hard drives. It's surprising how many people fail to do anything to clean old hard drives when getting rid of old computers.

[the invisib1e hand]

wow. to think that I've sent 2 hard drives back to Dell on warrantee swaps in the past 2 years.

[Knitebane]

1) Insert Knoppix CD
2) Go to command prompt
3) #dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda bs=1M
4) #sync
5) repeat 4 times