RE: Hard drives v. CF/Smart media/etc.

["Herman Frederick Ebeling, Jr." <hfebelingjr () lycos com>]

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- ----Original Message----
From: FocusHacks [mailto:focushacks () gmail com]
Sent: Thursday, 20 October, 2005 09:38
To: hfebelingjr () lycos com
Cc: Security-Basics
Subject: Re: Hard drives v. CF/Smart media/etc.

: On 10/19/05, Herman Frederick Ebeling, Jr. <hfebelingjr () lycos com> wrote:
:: 
:: Cool, and for those who can afford those shredding machines there's the ole
:: Black & Decker drill, 10 oz ball peen
:: hammer, and fire. . .
:: 
: 
: Yes, and I've done that a few times to old hard drives that I want to
: throw away.

I'm sure that you're NOT alone in doing that either. . .;-)

: 
::: ...you could toss it into a microwave for 10-30 seconds.  Sure, you would
::: never be able to use it again; however, at the same time all the data
::: would be completely decimated without any question.  This is
::: borderline between physical and logical destruction.
:: 
:: What if anything happens to the microwave?
:: 
: 
: Nothing really happens to the nuker.  A few sparks or bright glowing
: spots might form on the metal surfaces of the media.  If in doubt, go
: buy a cheap $10 microwave from a garage sale "just in case".  One
: thing though, it does reek of fried electronics and melty plastic for
: a while if you cook it too long.  10 seconds isn't a lot of time.  30
: is probably for the really paranoid.

And use that $10 garage sale microwave for all future nuke jobs.

: 
: Many years ago, a mischievous relative of mine had trouble getting a
: mobile phone battery replaced under warranty after just a month, so he
: pulled the battery off and microwaved his phone for about 5-10
: seconds, then took it in for warranty.  Absolutely no physical damage
: or evidence of abuse, but the phone was completely toast.  He got a
: new phone just like his old one, and it came with a new battery.

That's one way to get a new battery.

: 
: Since then, I've tried it on a few smartmedia and compact flash drives
: with good results.  I wouldn't try reading the media afterwards
: though.  A nuked but intact-looking SmartMedia card ruined my USB card
: reader.

hate to sound dumb, but how did the card ruin the reader?

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