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Hard Drive Scrambler

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LAN_403

Bjørn

Mon Nov 02 2009, 03:41AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

The data is stored in concentric circles like this:

Frosty90

Mon Nov 02 2009, 10:38AM

Registered Member #1617 Joined: Fri Aug 01 2008, 07:31AM
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 139

How about simply heating the platters, like chuck them in a bonfire for a while? Heating magnetised materials de-magnetises them so any reason this wouldnt work in this case? Perhaps there is some threshold temperature before demagnetisation occurs...

Nicko

Mon Nov 02 2009, 11:56AM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

I work for a company that has a lot of sensitive information. When drives fail, or we need to scrap something, it goes to professional drive shredders - the link that Steve posted is one I sent him - its the company we use - they turn drives into "kitty-litter".

I used to shoot our old drives with a 12 gauge shotgun cartridge with #6 shot from about 3 feet. You would be astonished at how tough hard drives are - the steel cover plate side is almost impenetrable with a single shot, so I used to shoot them from the other (al casting) side.

This was all very noisy, quite painful, and left our log pile containing hundreds of shards of aluminium casting & pcbs...

The shredding company charged about USD 15 per drive and no way, no how, was anyone going to get data off that drive. We also got a certificate of destruction for each drive for our (and the auditors') records...

wylie

Thu Nov 05 2009, 05:41AM

Registered Member #882 Joined: Sat Jul 07 2007, 04:32AM
Location:
Posts: 103

For an electrical solution, I gotta agree with kludge. You'd want a big-ass magnet running off mains. Though i'd run it DC, with a switch for reversing polarity. Run it one way for a min, run it the other for a min, and the data should be suitably annihilated.

I'm not clear on one part of my own proposal though. Would the drive NEED to be stuffed in an airgap on the big-ass magnet? Provided the magnet is strong enough, wouldn't contact with the core be sufficient? Like when we picked up nails with our 1st electromagnet? Or would the field just stick inside the steel part of the case?

Assuming core contact is enough, here's how i'd build it.

sheet steel, cut to rectangles about 6in X 3.5 hard-drive-lengths long. (layers on the top/bottom ends slightly different)

nuts and bolts or threaded rod

spraycoat

the layout:

1257398838 882 FT78493 Simple Steel Core

Slap a winding on one of those legs, and lay the HDs on the remaining core area.

Though, i haven't heard anyone refuting the heat treatment yet. Shouldn't driving the storage film layer past the curie temp destroy all the data? Seems like a cheapo electric range could hold plenty of drives, and cook them all in just an hour or 2. Just set it up by a well ventilated window ;)

(*disclosure: i was just thinking about this idea, with no intention to post. but i made the pic as a visual aide and had so much fun i spent another hour making it look good and then, well, i mean, i HAD to post it)

((anyone know why the thumbnail is a photonegative of the actual image? i've never encountered that before))

Backyard Skunkworks

Sun Nov 08 2009, 08:17PM

Registered Member #1262 Joined: Fri Jan 25 2008, 05:22AM
Location: Maryland, USA
Posts: 451

"DBAN prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis."

DBAN is probably good enough for just about any scenario you'll come across as far as wiping HDDs, although it's not as good as physical distruction, it's damn close.

You have the added bonus of being able to re-use the drive too.

Bjørn

Sun Nov 08 2009, 10:16PM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

DBAN is probably good enough for just about any scenario you'll come across as far as wiping HDDs, although it's not as good as physical distruction, it's damn close.

It is good enough that the data can't be recovered using standard software under certain conditions.

If there is a a problem with the drive it will fail to erase some or all of the data. That means a software solution is usable when you want to reduce the amount of data you want to give away, never when the data must be destroyed.

In this case no one would expect a volunteer a computer recycling facility to be a perfectly safe place for sensitive data so a software solution should be good enough.

drake

Wed Nov 11 2009, 01:25AM

Registered Member #2294 Joined: Fri Aug 14 2009, 06:54PM
Location:
Posts: 4

I used DBAN when I had some "sensitive" data on my school laptop several times, and the tech people were really quite baffled when they couldn't recover ANYTHING at all.

I recommend it. The program allows you to choose several degrees of security and I think the more secure ones can take several hours to run.

I don't know if a computer with a 5"x5" HD would have a CD drive or USB port though

Making a thermite pit sounds fun. We did it in gen chem, why not at work?

ConKbot of Doom

Tue Nov 17 2009, 02:47PM

Registered Member #509 Joined: Sat Feb 10 2007, 07:02AM
Location:
Posts: 329

Drill 2 holes on opposite sides of the lid. stick a torch into one side, let it run like that for x amount of time. I'd suggest an oxy-acetelyne torch over a propane torch. (faster, more kick-ass... etc..) but a simple propane plumbing torch is cheap an will get the job done.

If you get a oxy/acetylene cutting torch, I'd actually just skip the drilling the holes, and just burn off the lid, knock that to the side, and blow some holes though the platters. If youre not doing truly secret data, then I think between actuually cutting the platters up, and heating the magnetic medium, it'll be toast.

An O/A torch wont cut aluminum nice and pretty like it will steel, but it'll still melt it real good. I'd imagine once the torch is on it'd be < 1 minute to process a drive with the O/A

Coherent

Thu Nov 19 2009, 08:00PM

Registered Member #1886 Joined: Sun Dec 28 2008, 02:55AM
Location:
Posts: 73

You'll wanna be very careful if you melt/burn them with a torch like some have suggested. If you burn the pcb's built into the hard drives you'll end up releasing a ton of lead vapor and toxic fumes.

wylie

Fri Nov 20 2009, 03:34AM

Registered Member #882 Joined: Sat Jul 07 2007, 04:32AM
Location:
Posts: 103

I'd be using a torch in a well ventilated area, regardless of what i was melting/burning/cutting.

I think it's in the instructions, not that any of us read those ;)

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