Broadmoor

Any idea what companies charge to "securely dispose" of PC's ?

No bootsale jokes pls.. i am looking @ around 6000 units..

Fig

Try Else Recycling & Refining

01462 812000

Speak to Pippa, say Martin from Beckers referred you.

Broadmoor

Cheers Fig....

churchwa

Just get a programme that writes 0's to the drive. They are on the web, it takes a bit of time but it is a very secure way of getting rid of secure data.

jimbob2

You need to degausse them, that or take the platters out and cut themup. Writing 0s does NOT work. Depends on who you're trying to protect them from - little ******: write 0s, mossad: degausse, smash, acid dip and burn.

I've some knowledge regarding gov/secret squirrel stuff - trust me

IWatkins

Writing 0's does work, you just need to do it enough times. Good enough for almost all applications.

Broadmoor

Cheers fella's.. I have since found a box type thingie that has a magnetic field which you place the hard drives in.. Dont know how good there are but we are testing it soon..

Then its just a case of losing 6000 screens,mice,keyboards,bases!!!

IWatkins

Broadmoor,

Sounds like a degauss box. You put the disks in, flick the switch, and the disks get hit by a massive magnetic field thus wasting the data on the disks.

I've come across a couple in my time and both weren't very well 'sealed'. Both occasions, the cash point card in my wallet stopped working Mind you that was a few years ago and I'm sure they have improved.

If the disks are then going to be binned, i.e. never reused, save a few up. When you are having a stressful day, have a game of who can throw a hard disk the highest, preferably in a concrete car park. Hours of fun and great stress release.

Cheers

Ian

[Edited by IWatkins - 4/24/2003 1:58:10 PM]

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I guess it depends on whether you're talking about commercial data (where the data just needs to be very difficult to retrieve), or whether you're into national security/official secrets level stuff where the data needs to be truly irretrievable and safe from espionage.

Writing zeros to the disc would mean that forensic data recovery would be needed to recover the data. If there's a real risk of that happenening, then you're into smashing the discs and dissolving them in acid - and I'd imagine that's something you need to actually do yourself rather than trusting any third party to do it for you.

A.

Jer

Just put 20gb Fujitsu drives in and wait for them to fail.

Ahhhhhhh the 4th one to fail at work in the last 3 months.

ajm

We used to subcontract to Synstar who in turn subcontracted to another company I think.

MarkO

<scrounge>Any chance of one of those base units making its way over here once its been wiped?</ponce>

(and if Basal_lobe turns up on this thread: "IDGAFF" what your opinion of me is )

camk

Now Now Marky...don't get Narky . Maybe if you help to destroy some of the disks they could pay you in Hardware. I'm amazed at some of the jobs that come up on here. It would nearly be possible to just freelance on scoobynet alone. Degauzing disk's one week, fitting subwoofers the next, fantastic .

BTW we disposed of 1000+ PC units by using an industrial crusher which reduces the amount of space needed. Firms will also take it away and re-cycle it, mostly to Eastern Europe. However we too had to wipe the data on the disks, which we did by removing and shipping to a company who certified destruction to US DoD levels.

Camk

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

YTS outside with a lump hammer !

stevem2k

Clay launcher and a shotgun ?

You could call it a corporate event....


Steve

Fatman

Simplest is to contraxt it to a specialist. Cheaper, but more time consuming...

- commercial "erasure" package (like Symantec Wipe Info)
- low level format
- physically damage the platters (hammer drill through multiple times)

...should do it.

Fullonloon

Writing just 0 will not work. You will need to write a series of both 0 and 1 accross the whole disk, and then reverse it several times. Then destroy the disks. I think for the majority of purposes that will be deemed good enough unless it's Government. Most will have their own way of destroying them - so unless it's a British interest I doubt you could get much more secure if you are doing it in bulk...

towzer

Steve - YHM

Phil

robski

In all seriousness any chance of having a few?

thats disks and base units?

Want to set up a few basic pcs in garage etc

robski

Broadmoor

Thanks for the replie's..

robski..when its nearer the time i'll post again..

nkh

The platters make good coasters, much more upmarket than CD's.

Does anyone know if you can put them in the dishwasher to remove finger print though?

krankyd

>>You will need to write a series of both 0 and 1 accross the whole disk, and then reverse it several times.

This is not as effective. Studies have shown that the redisual image of the data on a hard disk can still be retrieved after 100 non-secquential (sp) writes with 1's and 0's. Better to use huge sections of random data, better even to burn them. Burning is the only sure way....