Disposing old laptops

[Blazer]

Hi,

I'm hoping for some advice.

I have two laptops and a netbook which are surplus to requirements.  They still function but very slowly so have been replaced.

I'd like to securely dispose of the 3 devices but want to cleanse the data first.  I'm not that computer literate so I'm asking if there is an easy and free way for me to wipe my data so the machines can be disposed of?

Thanks in advance

Blazer

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Disposal of data? Well I know that Government sites us a service in the North East somewhere which puts hard drives through a shredder...
HAving been to one or two VERY Secure sites where if you took a hard drive off site you would likely be marched off at gunpoint...

For normal people like us there are bootable USB sticks which will run an erase pass over hard drives several times.
See   https://dban.org/

[orienteer]

I just smash the hard drive with a sledge hammer before taking to the tip.

[Blazer]

Thanks both,

I have considered the hammer direct approach followed by a trip to the tip and think that might be the 'safest' option

Cheers

[Ben T]

Smashing a hard drive with a hammer won't guarantee to render it completely impossible to get the data.
It will almost certainly render it very difficult, and might render it impossible, but what if you just smashed the outer casing, and the platters remained intact?
An SSD is even more likely to be able to retain the data, as it's solid state - no moving parts.

No, your best bet is to bring it to the boil in a pan of salt water and simmer for at least 24 hours.

[sojournermike]

If you just make it very hard, then leave it in the rain for a bit it’s likely that the data isn’t worth extracting. Of course, you may have important and useful data that is worth the effort for someone, but then you probably couldn’t tell us:)

[Morat]

I used to zap them in the microwave first, just enough to get the electronics sparking. I doubt it does much to the platters but it'll stop the thing spinning up properly. Then you can smash it! Of course, they're quite robust...

[grams]

No, your best bet is to bring it to the boil in a pan of salt water and simmer for at least 24 hours.

I can't think what this would do to either a hard disk or SSD to guarantee the data was destroyed.

[fuaran]

A couple of passes with DBAN is probably more secure than hitting it with a hammer.

[Kim]

Last time we had to do this, I took the cover off, connected it to a power supply, and dragged the tip of a screwdriver across the platter as it spun.

[Vince]

I had to dispose of a few disc a couple of years ago. I took the cover off the drive and extracted the platters. I put each in a vice and hit it with a hammer. The first just bent and was folded in half. The second and third shattered in to thousands of pieces of glass.

[DaveReading]

The pointy end of a pickaxe works well.

[Greenbank]

Remember to write "Bitcoin Backup" on the remains of the drive when taking it to the tip.

[bobb]

Some years ago when I was working as a general IT dogsbody, my boss asked me to destroy a whole bunch of his boss's hard drives. I didn't really know how to do it the correct way (ie overwriting all the data multiple times) so I drove a bunch of 6 inch nails through them with a lump hammer and chucked them in a skip. Six months later, the boss man was in prison for fraud. He was such a twat, I was glad to be of assistance to his arrest and imprisonment 

If you really want to destroy a hard drive - or indeed any kind of drive, get an angle grinder and fuck it up so much that it's just a pile of dust....

Edit: Do remember your PPE though, as all that porn dust can get messy...

[Gattopardo]

I like using the magnets out of the drives for magnet stuff.

[Blazer]

Thanks everyone,

Much appreciated 

[Valiant]

Ooh ooh take the magnets out of the drives, the platters also make nice coasters. Btw any chance you might be willing to snap the screens off and post them if they are LED lit? I can cover cost. I have a few project ideas that require led backlights.