I doubt the manufacturers will provide that service. To eliminate data on a harddisk, you have to write 0000 on the disk first and write FFFF on it and repeat the process for, say, twenty times.
You can smash the disk with a hammer and dispose the pieces to different places too. To the environment, a harddisk should be no more harmful than the other parts of the computer, I believe. Regards, Puqing On Jan 8, 2008 2:03 PM, Fabrice A. Marie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hello Edwin, > > > Edwin Lee wrote: > > Hi all, > > Firstly, apologies as this is really unrelated to Linux... > > i have an old and totally malfunctioning laptop, as well as a spoilt > > harddisk that i would like to dispose of. How can i best dispose of > > them given two considerations: > > 1. Environmental friendliness > > 2. Paranoia (as in, me... hehe, i don't remember what data i had in > > those things when they were last working (quite some time ago), but i > > won't want anyone to be able to access them). OK OK i'm probably not > > important enough for anyone to want to snoop around, but still... > > Would appreciate your suggestions! Thanks in advance! > > Regards, > > Edwin > > > 1- For the environment I'm not too sure. Probably return the disk to a > manufacturer > they are the one who'll know how to recycle it since they are the > one who built it. > > 2- For data security, the best is of course a full degaussing, but it's > really hard and long to > perform on a harddisk, hence I recommend writing null characters on > your disk > (filling your disk with null characters using the dd command) as > well as a crude > degaussing (use a strong electromagnet on an open harddisk) : the > air should already > kill your harrdisk beyond salvage, the crude degaussing will make > sure whatever > is salvaged is either null characters or other magnetic induced rubbish. > > Hope this helps, > > Have a nice day. > Fabrice. > > -- > Fabrice A. Marie > FMA Risk Management Solutions > http://www.fma-rms.com/ > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Slugnet mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet > -- Best Regards, Puqing Chen [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Slugnet mailing list [email protected] http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet
