Will water destroy a hard drive?
Answers:
It would damage it to the point where you couldn't just pop it into a computer and get it working, but the data would still be recoverable. One of my clients dropped their laptop into their swimming pool. We had to send the drive out to DriveSavers, but they were able to recover all of the information on the drive.
If you want to destroy a drive through physical means, you'll either need to melt the drive platters or at least sand down the surfaces.
Easier way is to just securely wipe your files: http://dban.sourceforge.net/
yes it will
Hi,
I like the idea of hitting it with a hammer.
Yes.
You might be able to resell it, so instead of physically destroying it, try securely destroying all data on it. DBan is free.
if the water has something in it like milk that will cake on the disk then yes
well water would short it damage its insides messup the hard drive and shock you bad idea to put it near water
if your trying to cover your tracks from the CIA or FBI running a little water doesn't destroy all the data... if you want to destroy all the data buy one of those powerful video cassette magnet erasers and run that over the hard drive. personally i prefer smashing it with a hammer
The water thing might work, but the hammer is better therapy.
the data will be their till it starts to rust, the drive itself is watertight, if you want a quick fix get a big magnet and put it on it
Why do you want to destroy it? To loose all the data?
Download the Free Window Washer from www.webroot.com and use the feature to make a Boot CD.
Put this CD in your computer and turn it on with the hard drive in place, it will give you a number of 'wipe' options including US Department of Defense standard wipe. Anything on the hard drive will be completely destroyed and unrecoverable.
Water will not kill your hard drive, The platters are in a air-tight housing, and the drive can be fixed very easily by someone who knows a bit about how they operate.
Do not use any of the 'erasers' from sourceforge etc, they do not work. I used them to erase a hard drive only to discover that Ontrack Easy Recovery recovered all the files with ease.
Webroot is known to be reliable and is a well known brand amoung security professionals.
Soaking it in water may damage it but the information is still on the disks inside. If you really want to get rid of the information get a boot disk and format the hard drive 3 times.
if you just want to make the Hard drive unusable then get the screwdrivers out and dismantle it. Most hard drive use torax screws.
i agree with willam k hammer sounds alot more fun
I don't think it would destroy it but it can certainly damage it.
Yes
Water created the Grand Canyon. Given enough time, it will destroy anything.
Having said that, water will ruin the electronics of the hard drive, and may wash some of the coating off of the platters, but unless it washes the platters clean or rearranges the magnetic domains of the platter's coating, the data would still be readable by someone wanting to go to the expense.
If you are trying to destroy the data, there is software available that will overwrite the drive several times to destroy the data. My shop uses a product called "Wipedrive" and we run it three times to ensure that confidential data is obliterated before we surplus any computers.
yes,by the way i like the idea of beating it wih the hammer
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