secure data erasing

[Alvin Oga]

hi ya payne

On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Payne Freret wrote:

> Whatever is wrong with erasing tracking information, spare data blocks,
> and even the drive's second-stage firmaware if the alternative is to
> crush the drive with a big hammer?

if the plan is to destroy the disk/data ...
	hammer is good if the hammer is used on the platters
 	since not everyone hits the body of the disk drives hard enough
	to destroy the data on the platters

	the itty-bitty section ofthe disk under the head at the time
	of the hammer might get destroyed, but the rest of data on the
	platter is still intact

	the hammer approach has to hit the platters

if the plan is to recycle the disk for people to take home the
drives or giveawy to non-profits, than as was previously posted,
destroying some low level tracke ( servo ) info can be bad
thing .. but uv erasable eeprom "should be immune" to some magnetics
but if the beam is strong enough, who knows what north pole will
do under the extra strong magentic beams/pulses

c ya
alvin