Forget “Format c:” or that silly disk erasing software; get physical. With stories surfacing on news channels regularly about lost or stolen data or the ability to recover data from discarded or resold computers and their hard drives, Computerworld decided to look at some cheap methods of removing that sensitive data from your hard drive permanently. And, what better place to look than YouTube? While some of the behavior in these videos clearly displays a somewhat alarming level of violence and pent-up rage (and are probably illegal), we nevertheless were fascinated with the myriad ways to destroy a hard drive — from a plasma cutter to a train to machines we don’t even know the name of — not to mention aluminothermic reactions. Who knew there was such a subculture devoted to abusing hard drives? We even tried it ourselves, and you know, it is kind of fun. Make sure to go to the end of the story to see our version of disk destruction.
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