Destroying a PC/hard drive.

[styley]

Is there any way to ensure that a pc has no information left on it without having to power it up and delete everything. My aunt's computer broke down on her and she doesn't want to dump it in case someone could perhaps get access to bank details etc. Any suggestions appreciated.

[Ethel]

Remove the hard drive and smash it with a hammer.

Or remove the hard drive, put it in a cheap caddy and use it as external drive for the new pc, which will also allow her to retrieve the files she has on it.

[markysngc]

I used to work for a company that had to wipe the hard drives in old computers from banks etc. just deleteing the data will not wipe the drive, the data will still be on the drive and could be revcoverd, all deleteing a file does is delete a pointer to the file so the space can be used again, it doesn't wipe the file itself.

to wipe drives we either wrote random data on every part of the drive 10times. or if the drive was bust we used a very very very strong elcromagnet to wipe the drive,.

if neither of these ways could be used then physicallly destroying the drive will do it quite well, this way was achived by punching a sharp metel spike right through the drive in a couple of places.

Or if it is a half decent size drive take it out and put in in another computer as a second drive and use it as extra storage.

[ACtheTROLL]

does your aunt work for mi5?

if not ... either bite the bullet and erase the disc
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/faq.php#erase hd
once you've made the disc ...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/
just leave it running ... not hard

or delete everything reformat - take it out bung it in the shed or garage in an old shoe box ... if it reacts like my garden tools ... it will be destroyed and useless within a couple of weeks.

as marky says ... it won't actually get rid of the info - but if the disc lives in the garage it's unlikely to fall into the hands of international mafia techno fraudsters.

I suppose the best alternative is Ethel's (also marky's)
caddy suggestion
(although why a golfer's assistant would need a HDD escapes me!!)

[ACtheTROLL]

just remembered ... this would do the trick
http://www.grynx.com/projects/build-a-real-har d-drive-clock/

http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/04/25/top-5-uses -for-a-dead-hard-drive/3/

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/062706-g uard-dog.html

or finally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmiX_-p1544

http://www.youtube.com/watch?vCmiX_-p1544

explode