I am finally clearing out some of my old kit.

Hard rives around the 160Gb size, for example.
So comparable to a œ10 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!

Cheers



Dave R



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

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

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 œ10 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).

--
Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <mthn0gFdf34U7@mid.individual.net>, wibble@btinternet.com
says...

I am finally clearing out some of my old kit.

...

I have gone past trying to save interesting and useful components.
My hoard of technical obsolete crap is going to be reduced!

I've decided I can make do with just the following:
*] Main PC
*] Main laptop/Tablet/Surface thingy
*] That expensive laptop I've actually hardly used in the last ten years
and can't bear to throw out.
*] Microserver
*] That old box running Windows 98 if it still goes
*] An old Dell useful for data recovery from IDE drives
*] A once Win-7 Dell (i5) that I'll oneday probably never try Linux on
*] A once Win-7 Dell (i3) that I'll probably never try ChromeOS on
That should be enough.

So last week I went to the tip with:
*] An old laptop
*] A u/s printer
*] A u/s monitor
*] Fifteen desktop computers of various vintages

That leaves only eight more desktop boxes to harvest and scrap, and
about a dozen old laptops.

There are places in my house now I haven't be able to go for years!

--
--
Phil, London

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

They sell them as working brand new drives.

Those tossers advertised a Corsair 1000w "shift" psu on their site and I bought one to collect at their store and set out in the wind and the rain on
a night of a storm got there with my partner and when they put it on the counter I said "that's not a shift" that's an ordinary 1000w psu (it was
black friday) they tried to tell me it was but it clearly was not (confirmed by corsair) they wouldn't even pay me œ20 in compo for our burger king meal for 2 as all they offered was 15 quid miserable pricks...it was too late
when we got home to start cooking and this tosser phoned me and offered me
15 quid compo I said " the very least you can do is pay for our dinner" he went to ask someone then came back and refused. Why am I telling you
this....I have no idea it just seemed a good idea at the time!

brain bleed boy.





"RJH" wrote in message news:10l0e87$4qga$1@dont-email.me...

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 œ10 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).

--
Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

ccleaner/tools/choose the option to write zeros 3 times onto the drive

"David" wrote in message news:mthn0gFdf34U7@mid.individual.net...

I am finally clearing out some of my old kit.

Hard rives around the 160Gb size, for example.
So comparable to a œ10 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!

Cheers



Dave R



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

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

drive wiper its called you get the option to do 1, 3,7, or 35 times

"Ginchy" wrote in message news:10l325l$10tvj$1@dont-email.me...

ccleaner/tools/choose the option to write zeros 3 times onto the drive

"David" wrote in message news:mthn0gFdf34U7@mid.individual.net...

I am finally clearing out some of my old kit.

Hard rives around the 160Gb size, for example.
So comparable to a œ10 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!

Cheers



Dave R



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

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

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 œ10 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

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 23/01/2026 16:47, David wrote:

I am finally clearing out some of my old kit.

Hard rives around the 160Gb size, for example.
So comparable to a œ10 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!

YOUTUBE DEF CON 23 - Zoz - And That's How I Lost My Other
Eye...Explorations in Data Destruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bpX8YvNg6Y


--
Adrian C

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)