It's amazing what some people decide to throw in the trash; The truth is, much of it could easily be recovered to commit fraud and ID theft!
When I scrap out a hard drive, or for that matter a whole computer, there almost always is a hard drive.
The aluminum and nickel in the hard drive make it worth $.50/lbs at my yard. But recovering this data had never really crossed my mind.
This dangerous opportunity could be serious trouble for the generous people who offer up their electronics on craigslist or freecycle.
As a scrapper, all I do is smash the thing or sell it to a yard which then smashes them (hopefully). So what can you do to avert hard drive recovery theft?
I would recommend hitting it with a sledge hammer once. It just takes a good shaking like that and the hard drive will pretty much be toast.
If you want to do something a little less fun, just rip the green board on the bottom off. These boards contain all of the data needed to locate the information sitting on the discs. Without these green boards, a special "white room" aka dust free room is needed to read info off the disk.
If you would like to try something a little more messy, pop open one of the air vents in the side of the milled aluminum. If you pour in sand, or better yet tap water, you will obliterate the electronics and magnetic data. THEN hit it with a sledgehammer. THEN sell it for scrap at $.50 per pound.
When I scrap out a hard drive, or for that matter a whole computer, there almost always is a hard drive.
The aluminum and nickel in the hard drive make it worth $.50/lbs at my yard. But recovering this data had never really crossed my mind.
This dangerous opportunity could be serious trouble for the generous people who offer up their electronics on craigslist or freecycle.
As a scrapper, all I do is smash the thing or sell it to a yard which then smashes them (hopefully). So what can you do to avert hard drive recovery theft?
I would recommend hitting it with a sledge hammer once. It just takes a good shaking like that and the hard drive will pretty much be toast.
If you want to do something a little less fun, just rip the green board on the bottom off. These boards contain all of the data needed to locate the information sitting on the discs. Without these green boards, a special "white room" aka dust free room is needed to read info off the disk.
If you would like to try something a little more messy, pop open one of the air vents in the side of the milled aluminum. If you pour in sand, or better yet tap water, you will obliterate the electronics and magnetic data. THEN hit it with a sledgehammer. THEN sell it for scrap at $.50 per pound.
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