Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives

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From	David <wibble@btinternet.com>
Newsgroups	uk.comp.homebuilt
Subject	Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives
Date	24 Jan 2026 21:25:50 GMT
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On Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:22:00 +0000, RJH wrote:

> On 23 Jan 2026 at 16:47:12 GMT, David wrote:
> 
>> I am finally clearing out some of my old kit.
>> 
>> Hard rives around the 160Gb size, for example.
>> So comparable to a £10 SDHC card.
>> 
>> Is there a sensible way to format them clean?
>> Do people still trawl through old HDDs to try and find account
>> information?
>> 
>> Or is putting a hammer through it the easiest/safest way?
>> 
>> I have gone past trying to save interesting and useful components.
>> My hoard of technical obsolete crap is going to be reduced!
>> 
>> 
> FWIW I had 6 or 7 <500MB disks that hadn't been switched on for 10 years
> or more.
> 
> On the data, I figured that if I hadn't needed it in the last 10 years I
> was unlikely to need it at all. I have always kept fairly rigorous
> backups, so there's a hope there that anything useful has been caught in
> the backup regime.
> 
> On the disposal, I drilled a couple of holes through them all with a
> carbide bit (although they were pretty 'soft') and took them to Curry's
> for recycling (or whatever it is that they do with them).

Sounds like a plan.
Although I would take them to the local Recycling Centre (Tip) as it is 
far closer than the nearest Currys.

Cheers



Dave R

-- 
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

-- 
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Disposing of tiny hard drives David <wibble@btinternet.com> - 2026-01-23 16:47 +0000
  Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com> - 2026-01-23 18:22 +0000
    Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives "Ginchy" <admin@INVALIDthebdhers.com> - 2026-01-24 18:05 +0000
    Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives David <wibble@btinternet.com> - 2026-01-24 21:25 +0000
  Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives Philip Herlihy <nothing@invalid.com> - 2026-01-24 13:01 +0000
  Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives "Ginchy" <admin@INVALIDthebdhers.com> - 2026-01-24 18:14 +0000
    Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives "Ginchy" <admin@INVALIDthebdhers.com> - 2026-01-24 18:17 +0000
  Re: Disposing of tiny hard drives Adrian Caspersz <email@here.invalid> - 2026-01-27 17:04 +0000

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