destroying hard drive

[tearinghair]

Computer has been successfully upgraded, and I'm now wanting to render the hard drive from the previous one useless. I seem to remember reading on this site a while ago that the only sure way is to hammer a nail through it; unfortunately my arthritic fingers don't have the strength to do that. Is there another safe method, please?

[tearinghair]

Yes. I'm planning to recycle the rest of the tower etc, but didn't want to risk any hacking of the data on the drive.

[tearinghair]

It'll give the squirrels a bit of a shock, too, when they're digging up their peanuts....

[Beswad]

Just unscrew the whole thing and get the magnet out. Very useful for magentising screw drivers and the disc is excellent as a beer mat.

[Buenchico]

If you've got a working computer that you can insert the drive into, as a second device, then the free version of Killdisk will securely wipe the drive.

Alternatively, any pound shop will sell you superglue cheaply. (Typically 6 tubes for a quid). Simply squirt the contents of an entire tube inside the drive. That will render it unusable.

Chris

[tearinghair]

Many thanks everyone. I look forward to its complete destruction!
Thanks also for all your help in this section this year, and a very happy New Year to you all.

[wolf63]

If you use Chris's glue method you will probably spend the best part of a day in A&E getting your fingers unstuck - or is it just me that does stupid stuff like that?