kitekrazy Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I'm in the process of "decluttering". I had a collection of external IDE drives that needed to go. I don't miss those. I'm going thru more stuff to send to their end. I had this Acer monitor that was still running 20 years later. Eventually those M-Audio PCI cards will have to be retired my older systems with PCI slots die. There's also my M-Audio FW410 the was always reliable. I don't really care to buy a firewire card just to use it. I had a JVC 5.1 receiver that I sent to a thrift store. I use to run my PC sound through and rarely turned it off over 10 years. ALong with that went an Infinity center channel along with a Radio Shack subwoofer with two satellite speakers made by Infinity. I have another Radio Shack sub and 2 Infinity 3 way speakers to move. This stuff sounded great but I don't have room for it. Buying hi fi gear is becoming less available. Plus those speakers didn't have plugs like for the new receivers. I decided to get a soundbar and it's less space but some of this technology is annoying wit this "smart" junk. Nothing is built to last anymore because it costs far less. Remember tube TVs and there was a repairman. I also ditched DVD players but I still keep them in my PCs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I hear that! During the Black Friday sales, I did what I posted and got a nice Samsung 43" 4k TV for only $209! This replaced two old 1600x1200 monitors that were from the 1990's... Hey, they still technically worked! Albeit with some slight doubling and the resolution restrictions... Then, last weekend, I went through a couple of old computer-related gear bins and now have one entire bin that's going to dump this week (along with a lot of other stuff). I found things I didn't know I still had including at least one item that dates back to the 1980's! Yeah, it's been awhile since I'd gone through those bins completely! 😆 I've got a disk toaster that I'm using to get old data off of a bunch of IDE drives and I also just hooked up three old devices (a DVD player; a CD/VHS combo; and a dual-cassette deck) so I can do the same with other old media. I can't help but laugh at how you can buy an 8TB SSD drive now for about $300 (I have two). I still remember paying $510 back in the 1980's for a 10 MB hard drive that I was sure I'd never fill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 2 minutes ago, craigb said: I still remember paying $510 back in the 1980's for a 10 MB hard drive that I was sure I'd never fill! So, did you ever fill it up? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 My first storage purchase was a box of 5.25" floppies. I was pissed that I had to buy a box of 20. Every data cassette I had would fit onto two floppies, so what on earth was I going to do with the other 18? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjornpdx Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I have a lot of old IDE drives that I want to wipe, then get rid of. It takes a long time to wipe them with software and it takes some time to physically destroy them. I'm thinking about using a strong magnet to delete data, but I'm reading conflicting reports about how well magnets would work. Seems like they should do the job if strong enough. -Bjorn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 I once walked into a warehouse full of retired disk drives. It was at a high-security facility where they work on nuclear submarines. When I asked my guide/escort what that was about, he explained that they have a strenuous protocol for disposing of old drives. They would start with a magnetic wipe, placing the drive into a very strong oscillating magnetic field. But that was just the start of the process. Then they'd physically disassemble the individual platters and sandblast the oxide coating. Finally, the remaining aluminum substrate was run through a chipper, leaving rice-grain sized pellets of aluminum that were then melted down. You might try that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xoo Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 15 hours ago, bjornpdx said: I have a lot of old IDE drives that I want to wipe, then get rid of. It takes a long time to wipe them with software and it takes some time to physically destroy them. I'm thinking about using a strong magnet to delete data, but I'm reading conflicting reports about how well magnets would work. Seems like they should do the job if strong enough. -Bjorn Format then hammer + metal spike. Seriously. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) 52 minutes ago, bitflipper said: I once walked into a warehouse full of retired disk drives. It was at a high-security facility where they work on nuclear submarines. When I asked my guide/escort what that was about, he explained that they have a strenuous protocol for disposing of old drives. They would start with a magnetic wipe, placing the drive into a very strong oscillating magnetic field. But that was just the start of the process. Then they'd physically disassemble the individual platters and sandblast the oxide coating. Finally, the remaining aluminum substrate was run through a chipper, leaving rice-grain sized pellets of aluminum that were then melted down. You might try that. I had to go onto a nuclear sub a couple of times back when I was working at a defense contractor (the subs were in the Point Loma area of San Diego). Claustrophobic AF for someone who's 6'4" tall! The guy who greats you on the gangplank (I forget what they call his position, "Man of the Boat?") gave all of us a badge and the same joke "See that green? If it goes red, you're dead!" meaning the nuclear reactor had leaked. For a brief time I was working on the flight code for the Tomahawk cruise missiles. While that may make me a bit of a rocket scientist (and a younger bitflipper! 😆), I look back now at that and what I was originally supposed to do (fly F-14's; until I grew too tall), and realize how far away from my personal views those are! Definitely not a fan of indiscriminate killing! Heck, I even capture the little flying bugs that wind up in the house (I name them all Fred) and release them outdoors. The one thing I do recall about erasing drives is that before using the magnets we would write all low values (zeros), then all high values (ones) on the entire drive and do this about three times. Most people don't realize that deleting a file only removes the entry from the file access table (FAT) and the actual contents will stay there until that area of the disk gets rewritten. This is how recovery utilities (like Glary) can sometimes find recently deleted files for you (or the NSA if you've been bad!😁). There's also some residual which reminds me of screen burn-in that can sometimes indicate what the original value used to be. The fun part about disassembling a drive is you can keep the VERY strong magnets that are inside! We would use them to hold things to walls that look like they're only drywall (they were strong enough to stick to the screws underneath you couldn't see!). Edited January 9 by craigb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 28 minutes ago, Xoo said: Format then hammer + metal spike. Seriously. This is the method I use now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xoo Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 It's the way NSA used a couple of decades ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjornpdx Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 I've been taking them apart and recycling the metal (but keeping the magnets). Kind of time consuming though. The spike and hammer route sounds promising and fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoveCamper Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 7 hours ago, craigb said: The guy who greats you on the gangplank (I forget what they call his position, "Man of the Boat?") Officer of the Deck 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I recycled my Sony DAT machine and my first rack mount guitar effects unit, an ART SGE Mach II. Made me sick to let go of them. The Sony would no longer recognize the tapes and the ART always added a slow flanger to everything. I always took my IDE drives apart and destroyed the disc's before chucking them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 I reformatted my IDES because I don't really have the time to write zeros and didn't care to smash them. The only DATA on them was archived loops and recorded TV videos. Those only held 160GB. I bought another TV and used the previous one to replace my Vizio 32 780p that I used as a computer monitor. The problem was some software would run off the screen with that resolution. But I had no issues seeing software. I'm still keeping it since I don't know how long the other two will last. My biggest problem is when going to the recycle center is to not take something back. The last time I took home this massive CPU cooler and the board and CPU with it. The ram and CPU was from an Intel "meh" series. That massive cooler was a waste of money for the former user since the CPU wasn't good for overclocking. Where I use to live there was a computer store that would take old stuff and the motherboards were taken by a place the stripped the metals. There was tables setup with old accessories. Sometimes you needed an IDE cable or a PS2 extension cable. I still keep older cases since many modern cases don't even allow DVD drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulo Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 On 1/9/2024 at 2:49 PM, craigb said: I forget what they call his position, "Man of the Boat? On 1/9/2024 at 10:13 PM, CoveCamper said: Officer of the Deck I'm thinking that's probably not the most sought after job in the New Zealand Navy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 (edited) On 1/8/2024 at 6:05 PM, bjornpdx said: I'm thinking about using a strong magnet to delete data, but I'm reading conflicting reports about how well magnets would work. Seems like they should do the job if strong enough. I strong magnet (like a welding magnet, or decent level neodymium magnet from K&J... just be careful with those, since they can cause bodily harm... I have a few 100lb magnets I use for welding and to freak people out at times) will definitely do the job. What most do not realize is during the manufacturing process, there are bits written to discs to give the head navigation coordinates (left of track, right of track, and on center) for each sector so that it can verify alignment before writes/reads. Those navigation point are no different than the data lanes and the entire disc is highly magnetic, so a strong magnet will not only wipe the data, but also wipe the navigation points from the disc which will make a head unable to even locate tracks. That said, there are tools now to optically read discs with a laser, so anything not magnetically wiped can simply be scanned. Driving a spike through a disc will only obliterate the actual puncture location, the rest of the disc can be scanned without issues. You do not need to un-swage (take apart) the discs to magnetically wipe them, just break the seal on the cover and pop the lid off, then run a powerful magnet along the edge of the disc stack. You just need a magnet strong enough to generate the same localize field a head does to wipe a disc magnetically. Quick edit: Wow, those magnets have gone up in price dramatically. I got 4 of these for $10 each 20 years ago, and they are $45 a piece now! At that time, welding magnets were $75 a piece and still less powerful than these guys, so they are still a deal. Just be very careful with any magnets this strong. Edited January 12 by mettelus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 20 minutes ago, mettelus said: I strong magnet (like a welding magnet, or decent level neodymium magnet from K&J... just be careful with those, since they can cause bodily harm... I have a few 100lb magnets I use for welding and to freak people out at times) will definitely do the job. What most do not realize is during the manufacturing process, there are bits written to discs to give the head navigation coordinates (left of track, right of track, and on center) for each sector so that it can verify alignment before writes/reads. Those navigation point are no different than the data lanes and the entire disc is highly magnetic, so a strong magnet will not only wipe the data, but also wipe the navigation points from the disc which will make a head unable to even locate tracks. That said, there are tools now to optically read discs with a laser, so anything not magnetically wiped can simply be scanned. Driving a spike through a disc will only obliterate the actual puncture location, the rest of the disc can be scanned without issues. You do not need to un-swage (take apart) the discs to magnetically wipe them, just break the seal on the cover and pop the lid off, then run a powerful magnet along the edge of the disc stack. You just need a magnet strong enough to generate the same localize field a head does to wipe a disc magnetically. Quick edit: Wow, those magnets have gone up in price dramatically. I got 4 of these for $10 each 20 years ago, and they are $45 a piece now! At that time, welding magnets were $75 a piece and still less powerful than these guys, so they are still a deal. Just be very careful with any magnets this strong. Somehow this tells me to avoid those. It has "learned the hard way" written all over me. Thanks for posting the link. I didn't no such things existed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Just get one of these and nobody will be reading anything off of your hard drives! 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Ever go magnet fishing? I had a blast doing that, using an extremely powerful magnet I was told was salvaged from an industrial magnetron. It had threaded bolt holes perfect for attaching a heavy rope. Well, I enjoyed it until I snagged something too big to pull up. My magnet now sits at the bottom of an 800' deep lake in Idaho, probably attached to a steamboat that sank there a century ago and rumored to be laden with silver. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneofmany Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 On 1/8/2024 at 5:05 PM, bjornpdx said: takes some time to physically destroy them. Need a bigger hammer ⚒️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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