What to do with a hard drive?

I bought a new set up a couple of months ago, and don't have any need for the old one. I wasn't planning on selling or even donating the old one, since it was on its last legs anyway.

Is it true that if someone just wants to dump an old computer, that all they need to do with the hard drive to render it useless is drill holes in it? I was going to buy some of that software that writes over all the ghost files on a hard drive before pitching it, but my wife said at her work they drill holes when they dump hard drives.

Any input would be appreciated!

If the most sensative data you had on that drive was say your bank account number, then yeah, imo, drilling is fine. You can also take a sledgehammer to it. If you want still, you can take the screws off the top of the hard drive and further destroy the platters (you'll see them, very shiney disks) with a heavy magnet across them; or if you're bored just keep unscrewing screws you and remove the platters, hammer time again.

tear it apart and use the magnets, theyre quite strong and if you leave it on a screwdriver for a few days it will become magnetised too

you could also run a high powered magnet all over and around it... for that sets the info useless.

I find a pickaxe makes quite a nice dent in them to stop them from working again. It's rather fun too.

Just for fun, you can wrap the whole drive in a coil of wire and then attach the wire to a 12V battery, turning the whole drive into an electromagnet. It's fun, educational, and pretty much destroys all the data on the drive when it polarizes the platters.

Hydrochloric acid is always fun.
And when you are done you and always sell the mangled mess to someone as pop art!!!

My favourite is always target practice. If you are in need of a clock, there is a kit you can get on the internet that includes the pieces needed to turn your old hard drive into a desk clock, I find them pretty cool.

Ha ha. Thanks everyone. I underestimated the potential I can have with this project. If only I could get my hands on some left over July 4 fireworks.

Of course, you could give that old comp a new lease of life by installing a lightweight distribution of linux on it, that way you could still use it. The bonus is that it would also reformat the drive as well.

But the fireworks would be a lot more fun. I also wonder if you got a really powerful motor how fast you could rev it up before it would break. Of course, a break at such speed would send shrapnel flying all over the place. Better just using the axe/hammer/acid etc

I am thinking you would need a huge motor or some serious gearing, since they regularly spin at 10,000 RPM. Although I am curious to know what the max speed is.

To the OP, if you need coasters, the platters make for some unusual and very cool coasters.