If you are going to throw your old computer away, it is essential that you destroy all traces of information from your hard drive; the same can be said if you are replacing your hard drive during an upgrade or as a result of damage. This can be done in two ways, you can either reformat your drive - find out how by visiting my hub 'how to wipe a hard drive' - or you can have some fun and experiment with various ways to destruct it.

This can also be considered an effective way of letting off steam. The only way that you can be 100% sure that your sensitive information has been completed deleted is to destroy, although in most cases reformatting will suffice. If you do decide that your hard drive needs to be smashed into pieces, then this guide will hopefully give you a little creative inspiration. Otherwise, it will at least lightly entertain you.

This is my personal favourite, Thermite is used in grenades by armies worldwide and burns at over 3000 degrees Celsius. In case anybody doesn't know, this is very fucking hot. If you manage to actually obtain some of this stuff, make a mini bunker in your lawn, surround with loads of sand, poor 4 pounds of Thermite on the top of the hard drive, stand back, ignite it, and then run away fast like you would when lighting a firework. Watch the hard drive burn until you are happy that even the brightest computer minds could not repair it, and then put out the flames with sand (although water will be fine).

This is another great method, but you must be careful as hydrochloric acid is extremely toxic, therefore you will need to get dressed up like you are cleaning up a contamination zone. Protective goggles and acid resistant gloves are an absolute must. Get a large glass cylinder, tie a piece of wire around your hard drive place your hard drive in the cylinder - make sure that the wire leads out of the glass, then fill the cylinder up to a level above the hard drive (your hard drive must fit completely into this glass). Keep the hard drive in the acid for a few hours, long enough for it to seep into your casing and eat away the disk. To speed up the reaction, with some pretty impressive results, place the cylinder in sunlight - just be very wary of the acid bubbling over onto your surrounding lawn. After a few hours, remove the hard disk by lifting the wire. It is likely that there is now no disk from which to steal data.

Probably the cheapest and most accessible method of hard drive destruction is to just smash it up with a hammer and a hacksaw. You also have no risk of third degree burns or setting alight to your neighbourhood. First, take a large hammer and just smash the shit out of the hard drive until you can see lots of damage; at this stage you should see bits hanging out and all sorts, if you don't then give it a few more very hard whacks. Then take your battered hard drive, put it in a vice, and cut your drive into fine strips; make sure that you destroy the discs and platters. This method is more than effective in preventing fraudsters or moles, unless you are wanted by MI5, the CIA, or the KGB..... in which case, you should probably use steps 1 or 2.

Another extremely effective way of destroying your hard drive is to grind it into dust, this would make it impossible for even a genie to get their hands on your data. To make this simple, just grab your hard drive, put it into a vice, clamp it tight, take a grinder with a large industrial sanding disk (60 Grit) and get started on sanding your hard drive until it completely disappears. If you were emotionally attached to your hard drive, then firstly please accept my commiserations. Also consider buying an urn into which to place the ashes, your best friend can live with you forever.

Another fail safe way to destroy hard drive data is to put your drive through an industrial shredding machine. Admittedly, you will be lucky to find anybody that happens to have one, but hell; if you do..... then give it a twirl. Check out the video, that's one bunch of fucked up hard drives. I could sit and do that all day. There are actually reputable companies that will shred your hard disks for you, and machinery that businesses can use to destroy large quantities of drives, but that is for another much less exciting hub. Anyway, I hope that this article made the task of protecting your personal information that little bit more exciting.

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