Topic: Cleansing hard drives with fire
started by: GORDON
Posted by GORDON on Oct. 08 2015,18:54
The kind with spinning disks.I put 3 of them at the bottom of a small bonfire, today. I wonder what 3 hours of furnace heat will do to them
Predictions? I will probably check the pit tomorrow.
edit - And, if the platters were recovered, do you think they would still be readable? I have no way to test this part, just speculating.
Posted by Malcolm on Oct. 09 2015,10:26
No way they're readable. If you're going to kill them, I recommend cracking them open and snagging the magnets inside. They make normal kitchen ones look weak.
Posted by GORDON on Oct. 09 2015,10:27
(Malcolm @ Oct. 09 2015,13:26)
QUOTE
No way they're readable. If you're going to kill them, I recommend cracking them open and snagging the magnets inside. They make normal kitchen ones look weak.
Oh yeah, I took pics today. Will post them later. The answer was a bit of all 3 options.
Posted by GORDON on Oct. 09 2015,13:55
Here's how I found them. Note the fact the circuit boards still exist, I figured they would have been gone.
Here's one, note you can still see the arms, but the platters seem to have melted away.
So basically we are left with partial enclosures, some of the moving parts that were inside, and some brittle circuit boards. When I pulled the 3rd one out of the ash I found it connected to a cooled river of some metal that had run off, pictured underneath the drives, I am guessing it is the platters. There wont be any data recovered off of that.
Anyone know offhand what a HD platter is made of?
Posted by TheCatt on Oct. 11 2015,18:19
Other - Release a shit-ton of toxic fumes?The platters are aluminum.
Posted by Malcolm on Oct. 12 2015,10:07
(TheCatt @ Oct. 11 2015,20:19)
QUOTE
Other - Release a shit-ton of toxic fumes?
The platters are aluminum.
The platters are aluminum.
A normal campfire should be able to burn hot enough to liquefy that.