To what extent must the platter of a hard drive be destroyed to prevent forensic recovery?

[Vorn]

Most sites advise drilling a few holes in it to thwart privacy invasion, so I'm assuming it does not take much. What about an electric engraver, woodburning pen, soldering iron or bolt cutters...would either of these be an effective method to use on a bare platter?

[Sensei]

..but do you know that the most of modern computers don't even have HDD.. ? practically the all sold laptops  in shops have SSD and NVMe storages..

SSD is 10x faster (550 MB/s) than HDD (55 MB/s)

NVMe (1500-3500 MB/s) can be 30-60x faster than HDD..

Edited November 15, 2021 by Sensei

[Phi for All]

10 hours ago, Sensei said:

..but do you know that the most of modern computers don't even have HDD.. ? practically the all sold laptops  in shops have SSD and NVMe storages..

SSD is 10x faster (550 MB/s) than HDD (55 MB/s)

NVMe (1500-3500 MB/s) can be 30-60x faster than HDD..

Which is completely off-topic. If someone wants to know how to fix an LP record player, it's meaningless to point out how CDs work differently. Don't you think it's safe to assume the OP is looking at that "bare" HD platter? I don't think its existence is in question.

[studiot]

33 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Which is completely off-topic.

I agree but this is a duplicate thread of this one

 

[mistermack]

If I didn't care about re-using the drive, I would put in in an old saucepan without any water, and leave it on a low heat on the hob for an hour. It would need some kind of genius to get data off it after that.

[John Cuthber]

4 hours ago, mistermack said:

If I didn't care about re-using the drive, I would put in in an old saucepan without any water, and leave it on a low heat on the hob for an hour. It would need some kind of genius to get data off it after that.

Stinky.

[Vorn]

On 11/15/2021 at 9:57 AM, Phi for All said:

Which is completely off-topic. If someone wants to know how to fix an LP record player, it's meaningless to point out how CDs work differently. Don't you think it's safe to assume the OP is looking at that "bare" HD platter? I don't think its existence is in question.

Indeed I am not quite so new that I would confuse a HDD with a SSD, although I have no idea what a NVMe is ,nor have much interest in finding out, as I stick with old tech.

On 11/15/2021 at 3:33 PM, John Cuthber said:

Stinky.

Yes, i think that would overtax the exhaust capability of my window fan. Possibly a propane torch applied outside? I have no idea just how much applying would be needed to sufficiently wipe data off a metal platter beyond forensic recovery....which leads back to the point of this post.

On 11/15/2021 at 10:30 AM, studiot said:

I agree but this is a duplicate thread of this one

 

No, the previous post was to determine if acid was a viable means to render a platter null and void for forensic recovery. Since I'm not inclined to fool with nitric acid, this method is shelved. The current post is to therefore to determine to what extent must a platter be vandalized to render its data unrecoverable, and secondly, will any of the methods I listed do the job? Probably this post should of been the first post you indicated, which was too limited in scope.

Edited December 19, 2021 by Vorn

[studiot]

4 hours ago, Vorn said:

No, the previous post was to determine if acid was a viable means to render a platter null and void for forensic recovery. Since I'm not inclined to fool with nitric acid, this method is shelved. The current post is to therefore to determine to what extent must a platter be vandalized to render its data unrecoverable, and secondly, will any of the methods I listed do the job? Probably this post should of been the first post you indicated, which was too limited in scope.

Not only was your chemistry question answered by professional chemists or materials engineers, but you were offered a tried and tested simple rapid and reliable method of destroying the drives.

Yet you couldn't be bothered to reply to any of the members who took the time to answer.

I consider that rude and disrepectful towards those members.

Edited December 19, 2021 by studiot

[mistermack]

On 11/15/2021 at 8:33 PM, John Cuthber said:

Stinky.

Not if you keep the heat low.  Or use a camping stove outside. 

An alternative is to put some cooking oil in the bottom of the saucepan. Cooking oil starts to smoke at about 200 deg C so just below that would be plenty hot enough to destroy the drive and any data on the disk. 

A bare platter, as in the OP question, I would just dangle over the gas ring till it deformed, or use a cigarette lighter. 

Edit : Apparently not. The platters are made from aluminium alloy or glass or ceramic, not plastic as I imagined. I did once open one, but didn't take much notice. It looked like a dvd, so I thought that that was the material. But anyway, if you have the platter removed, then I would recommend a hammer on a hard surface. Not even the entire might of the KGB or CIA could get that working again. 

There was once a case of a murderer being convicted after he cut up a floppy drive platter with scissors, it held his diary and they managed to reassemble it. But he didn't make a good enough job of it, and data on a floppy was far less compressed than a hard disk.