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louzucaro The Gates of Troy

Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 1915 Location: Chicago area
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: How to make data unreadable on an old hard drive. |
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I know this is a subject that concerns people, so I thought I'd share a discovery I made this morning. Spilling a can of Diet RC will render the data on that old hard drive pretty much useless. _________________ Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com
"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!" |
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Yoda117 M&M

Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 2362 Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:06 am Post subject: |
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No it won't.
I've recovered data from far worse situations. Soda is a PITA though (not as bad as fire or some of the more interesting acids out there.
Nuke it from orbit... just to be sure.
(or just use something like White Canyon's WipeDrive) _________________ Voiceovers by Gregory Houser
Philadelphia based Voice Actor
Blog - A man, a martini, and a lot of microphones |
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JimRon Club 300

Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 369 Location: Rockland Cty, NY
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Kachme Guest
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:35 am Post subject: |
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JimRon wrote: | i always found a hammer and nail did a good job. |
LOL...gotta love impact maintenance!! Works every time, plus you can pretend it's your least-favorite client & get some stress out.  |
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georgethetech The Gates of Troy

Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 1878 Location: Topanga, CA
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Steve Royal Guest
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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I've found many times that installing Windows is a good way of rendering a hard drive useless..... |
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JimRon Club 300

Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 369 Location: Rockland Cty, NY
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Steve Royal Guest
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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JimRon wrote: | HA!!! good one there steve...  |
heeheeheee....it's even more effective than a hammer and nail! |
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georgethetech The Gates of Troy

Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 1878 Location: Topanga, CA
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:31 pm Post subject: |
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Steve Royal wrote: | I've found many times that installing Windows is a good way of rendering a hard drive useless..... |
Windows ME, or Vista will do the trick, too! _________________ If it sounds good, it is good.
George Whittam
GeorgeThe.Tech
424-226-8528
VOBS.TV Co-host
TheProAudioSuite.com Co-host
TriBooth.com Co-founder |
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Yoda117 M&M

Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 2362 Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Brad Venable Contributor IV

Joined: 23 Feb 2008 Posts: 129 Location: Dallas, TX, USA
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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soundgun wrote: | Steve Royal wrote: | I've found many times that installing Windows is a good way of rendering a hard drive useless..... |
Windows ME, or Vista will do the trick, too! |
Vista? You mean the Windows Me of a new generation?  _________________ Brad Venable
The Voiceover Superhero!
"Saving the world thirty seconds at a time." |
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SimondsSays Guest
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:16 am Post subject: PC Tech Says |
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The nail and hammer is one of the best ways to permanently remove data from any hard drive. .22's work well too, but use high power rounds so they penetrate and don't bounce off. Anything with sugar is a VG corrosive to any computer gear. If you ever spill any liquid on any computer, lunge for th epower cord and unplug it and you may save it. If it is a laptop, immediately yank the power, flip it upside down and remove the battery. If it is a sugary liquid you may be screwed no matter what. You need to get the sugary OFF by rinsing with water, but then this can also do damage if all power isn't removed. We have had success in the past by flushing a laptop, without the hard drive or batt in it and then baking on low low temp in an oven for a few days to drive out the moisture.
Remember:
1 - All computers suck and all hard drives will die. Start there and you will never be disappointed in anything they do or don't do.
2- Always use a battery backup on all computer gear.
3 - Use multiple external data storage devises because of rule number one.
4 - Macs are thee same hardware as PC's now.
5 - Avoid Vista at all costs. "ME-The Sequel"... despite MS's best effort to tell us the emperors new clothes are fabulous, most of us know his willie is showing.
ps.... after 15 years repairing PC's, not only do they suck, but we saw enough Mac issues rolling through to say that they also suck.
s - Most pc issues can be resolved by tuning the system to the needs of the persons task. If you are running a work computer, don;t load games, chat programs or ANYTHING else on it.. no weather bug, no anitvirus or extra foofy things... no screens saver, no start ups... nada.... sooo many times I have dealt with machines that come in as useless pieces of crap and go out running wonderful, and all I did was remove what they had done to it and tune it up to allow the computer to properly address the real need of getting work done.
P S... OK so one more... We made significant revenue on a sickness computers would get called "teenager disease".. this results when said teenagers load any and everything they can on the computer, say yes to prompts and pron sites and load the wrong MySpace page. If you value you your work and computer NEVER let your children, relatives of ANYONE else touch your computer.
( stomps soap box to kindling, starts a fire and meanders off) |
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tackerman The Gates of Troy

Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 1741 Location: in the ether
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:21 am Post subject: |
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I've got one of these in the next room...
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SimondsSays Guest
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:28 am Post subject: Or |
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as the fine gentleman has demonstrated, expose that drive to a really big magnet!!!
( and keep those magnetic cards off the computer case!!!! They belong on the fridge)
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ccpetersen With a Side of Awesome

Joined: 19 Sep 2007 Posts: 3708 Location: In Coherent
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:39 am Post subject: |
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Oh, I knew that degausser we have in our studio would do the trick!
Here's one for you windows fans... from www.klingon.org
 _________________ Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420
Last edited by ccpetersen on Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:43 am; edited 3 times in total |
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