Best way to destroy a computer?

[Skink]

It knows to much. Could reveal some embarrassing things. Sledge hammer to the CPU? Acid solution?

[slackmaster]

1. I prefer high-order explosives

A sledge hammer blow to the hard drive is very effective for destroying the data.

[Serve The Servants]

2. Format disk, powerful magnet, rifle range

In that order.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Drill through the hard drive

Do a few holes if you really wanna be sure.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Install Windows. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

23. +1000. nt

[NYCGirl]

5. Darik's Boot and Nuke:

http://www.dban.org/

This'll do it.

[apnu]

28. +1,000 this is the way.

After you do that (and it will probably take all night), and you want to physically destroy the disk (I don't know why you'd want to, but hey its your disk) drill holes in it or find one of these gleefully destructive things: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd_O7-rqcHc

[21st Century FDR]

6. Install Windows Vista

And then run Internet Explorer without any sort of anti-virus programs.

That computer will be dead one way or another within 24 hours :evilgrin:

[Skink]

12. See I did that.

I have not run any antivirus program for years now. The computer was really faltering but then, stupid me, I took the front off the cpu and cleaned off the inch thick dust and now my decade plus old machine is running like new.

[Chan790]

7. Really?

Salt water. Dead the second the power supply hits the water. Remove the hard drive, smash the disks inside. As low tech as it sounds, this is how DHS gets rid of computers it cannot possibly ever let be recycled or repurposed...just in case the wipe was insufficient.

[Skink]

10. Would a standard apartment tub due?

Or is the ocean called for.

[Chan790]

13. Bathtub fine...

even tap water really does. It's the ions in solution, not the water itself that's the problem for electronics...salt water has more ions (as does sugar water or anything else dissolved in water for that matter) than tap water and salts are corrosive.

Interestingly this leads us to a corollary fact. Distilled water, having no ions in solution, doesn't conduct electricity terribly-well or usually at-all.

[Skink]

14. Regular salt or sea salt?

[Chan790]

15. I don't think it matters. n/t

[SwampG8r]

25. hes making computer soup

[ZombieHorde]

8. Just put flyers of Palin's new movie on it, and it will effectively be invisible. nt

[JoePhilly]

9. Depends ...

The hard drive is what keeps your secrets.

If you have other data on it that you want ... you need to back it up to some other storage media, like an external drive, CDs, etc. You can even keep that hard drive and turn it into an external drive for a new system if you want, so the info you want, and the scary secrets, are still available to you.

Then, get rid of the other parts that you don't need.

Or ... if you don't need any of the data anymore, you still remove the hard drive. And then you damage it in ways so that it can not be read again.

You could reformat it. But there can still be some traces.

You can drill holes in it ... that's works.

Or, reformat it, remove it, drill holes in it, pound it, and scratch its internals, then break those into pieces. Then take the pieces, and thrown them into the little trash cans in several gas stations.

Or easier ... after you pull out the HD, put it in a box, tape it up, and put it in the attic. Label it "broken fish tank pump" or something like that, and no one will ever find it.

[lurky]

11. Save your money: Kill the hard drive and keep the computer.

Like Serve the Servants said, format the drive. A "complete" format, not a "quick" format. Then blast it with a big magnet. Then physically destroy it. Salt water sounds like a great idea. Fire would probably work too, but there are some toxic materials in there you wouldn't want to breathe. Shooting it could be fun, but might not be as effective.

[eggplant]

16. It's just the hard drives you want to get rid of.

Crack open the drive, remove the platters, grind off their surfaces. Throw them away in separate locations. No need to magnetically erase it.

[Lint Head]

17. Remove the hard drives and sand them down with a power sander.

[oviedodem]

18. IT guy hear 12 years.. Assuming the hard drive. Do a

DOD 3 or 7 pass wipe on the drive. DBAN is a good tool

Then u could take out drive, disassemble and drill some holes through it and maybe take out the platters put them in a bag and smash them to itty bitty pieces.

That should pretty much do it.

All free of charge and no risk of burning yourself with acid.

A sledge hammer to the drive without dissemble may not work. I have heard of cases where someone with a lot of skill, time, and money can get data by taking out the platters.

[Hand_With_Eyes]

19. Electro-magnet to the hard drive

[Historic NY]

20. Give it to me... even the IT's guys can't fix mine when I'm done with it....

its owned by a local government too.

[golfguru]

21. (1) Give your dog beer

(2) Collect dog's pee and dunk the hard drive in it.
(3) Let it stay immersed for an hour.

All data will be doggone.

[Fuddnik]

22. Go to a pool store. Get a gallon of muratic acid for about $10.

Put it in a plastic bucket, add hard drive, and it will look like noodles in minutes.

Wear rubber gloves and eye protection.

[SwampG8r]

24. open case remove hard drive drill several hloes through it

then burn it

[cliffordu]

26. Windows whatever.....any version is basically a shitcan of

Perfectly good hardware....

[Yavin4]

27. I Had A Smiliar Problem Just Recently

I just removed the hard drives from my computers and threw out the computers. I got a storage device for the hard drives which makes them external hard drives to my new computer. So, I still have all of my old files and data.

[AngryAmish]

29. pull hard drive, grind the drive into dust on grinding wheel

[Vattel]

30. Pull hard drive. Put it into a strong bag. Pummel it with a hammer.

Then drive to a city you don't live in and throw it into a dumpster when no one is looking.

[blkmusclmachine]

31. Ask Cheney

[Telly Savalas]

32. Tell it a paradox

In the computer's attempts to process the paradox it will start emitting smoke and then malfunction.

It totally worked when Captain Kirk did it.