Hard drive shredder

For the guys that do the larger scale computer recycling, do any of you have any recommendations for a hard drive shredder. I'm looking for a small one at this time, one that would probably never seem more than a few hundred drives a month.

Hoping that if I were to add this service, I could land some of the bigger companies / organizations that need to make sure that their hard drives are properly destroyed.

Thank you.

I have been looking for a mobile shear for HDs. So I'm all ears if you hear something about that too

all the shredders I have looked at were NOT cheap...I also checked on a degausser and MAN they were pretty **** expensive as well. I know alot of places want drives shredded, BUT you can also do data destruction with some software out there that provides a COD (certificate of destruction) that is satisfactory for HIPPA and other regulations. You can actually wipe to NSA standards (up to 7 passes) and Hippa only requires Department of Defense (3 passes)...this might be a good way to at least provide the service and get started.....the other options run from about $3K-10K to get either a degausser or a shredder....

There are a couple of threads I participated in on the data destruction...you might search for those and read through them....will get you up to speed pretty quickly.

Good luck!

Actually I had a go at this...after reading about using a log splitter, first the small home splitters are not strong enough, the 20 ton splitter needed a jig (Read block that allowed the drive to be bent enough to break through it) to properly split the drive. DO NOT put them in thin ways, put them in upright on their side top of drive facing wedge, let her rip and keep going. I found I could do two at a time and managed to go through all 6 buckets of drives in about an hour. My grandfather on the other hand was a bit upset that I was splitting metal with his new wood splitter...

Also I've had a go and simply firing up the oxy-acetylene torch and burning a hole through each...this proved incredibly time consuming.

For maximum returns and because I've become so good at it I simply break the hard drives down into their components...aluminum is up enough where I live that not doing this is wasting perfectly good money. It takes about a minute to totally tear down a drive with two $99.00 screwguns and 10 bucks worth of torx bits. When you come to the drives with the split ring mounts, smash those and sell em as breakage. For what it's worth EVERY drive has about 3/4 lb of aluminum...so for that whole minute you spent your return is already 50 cents or so, factor in the readers, platters, boards and magnets and you can see why I do what I do. Shredding is for people who would rather PAY for a device that throws perfectly good money away.

army,
You're method sounds fun, but does not destroy the platters that contains the information that companies and some people need and want to stay confidential

Once the platter has been removed from the drive it just isn't feasible to recover information from it.

You would need to know what brand of hard drive,what model, the date of manufacture, and which firmware edition the platter came from in order to install it into a donor drive. Not to mention .... this all has to be done in a cleanroom. Just a few specs of dust can put so many bad sectors on a platter that it becomes unreadable.

Originally Posted by Scrappah

Once the platter has been removed from the drive it just isn't feasible to recover information from it.

You would need to know what brand of hard drive,what model, the date of manufacture, and which firmware edition the platter came from in order to install it into a donor drive. Not to mention .... this all has to be done in a cleanroom. Just a few specs of dust can put so many bad sectors on a platter that it becomes unreadable.

Scrappah,

That might be true, but when dealing with the types of companies that I'm trying to land for E-waste, it just won't fly. Hospitals and doctors have HIPPA regulations to worry about, financial institutes deal with significant sums of money and other companies deal with confidential government information. All of these companies pay to have hard drives shredded. They won't just let anybody take there hard drives home under the assumption that they will be taken apart and sufficiently destroyed.

Originally Posted by Scrappah

I completely agree ! If you're dealing with the big boys you have to work to their standard of expectations.

Here's where it gets weird. You take the drives "off site" to your home -or- shop and instead of dismantling them you run em' through a shredder and issue a report. This all hinges on the integrity of the service provider.

Wouldn't it be better to do the HDD destruction on site in front of one of their appointed representatives ? That way there's absolutely no question about the chain of custody.

Seems like it would be a whole lot easier to destroy a platter than it would be an entire HDD. A portable oxy acetylene rig with a cherry blossom would melt it into a puddle in no time. Setup cost for the equipment and tank lease would be under 1,500.00 USD.

Have you ever seen a sheet metal shear like what they use in metal working shops ? Something like that would shear the platters into halves and quarters.

Seems like a bearing press could be used to fold the platters in half with the right jig.

Is there any way to lease a shredding machine ? I've known some businesses to lease their specialty equipment when a direct buy wasn't an option.

a small shredding machine that could be rolled into an enclosed trailer or box truck is all I'm looking for.

Maybe a lease or finance would be your best option.

For whatever it's worth ... i just cut a platter into pieces with a pair of tin snips.

Originally Posted by mthomasdev

a small shredding machine that could be rolled into an enclosed trailer or box truck is all I'm looking for.

That was what I was saying in my post above and the other person also mentioned....the SMALL ones run $4K (the ones that can go in a truck) all the way up to a large (read: FASTER) one that is $10-12K+....they are just expensive machines....look for a lease on one maybe or take the suggestion I also gave you to do DATA DESTRUCTION via software that COMPLIES with HIPPA...the data is basically unrecoverable on a 5 pass and even the NSA agrees that 7 passes is good enough for them....now be prepared...5-7 passes TAKES some time...ie you need to build/buy a multiple hard drive server (there is thread on this too) with a fast enough multicore processor and a bunch of ram....will run you about $1500-2K NEW and you can do about 10 drives at a time....you just run them overnight and the software will spit out a certificate of destruction that you give to the business for their records (the COD gives the serial of the hard drive along with some other info, how many passes etc happened and the results).

That should give you all the BASIC/STARTER info you need for the various methods of getting into the data destruction / hard drive shredding business...

Actually the log splitter mangles the heck out of the platters...often in two pieces and lots of jagged edges.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

If someone is truly interested, here is an affordable option. Supply your own box truck or inclosed trailer and supply your own generator to cut the starting price down some more.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/compu...-shredder.html

Mech,

the link brings me back to the start of the thread.

I think I saw what you were talking about last night, but would appreciate the link. Thank you.

I'm just throwing something out there for everyone's consideration.

First off: This is a link to the HIPPA law. ( It's pretty vague )

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-201...sec164-310.pdf

Secondly: The mindset seems to be that you have to spend all kinds of money and buy a machine to do good data destruction. Why not step back and re-think this ?

All you would have to do to meet the HIPPA standard of hard drive destruction is the following:

A: Remove hard drive

B: Remove front cover of hard drive

C: Snip the reader arm away with a pair of wire cutters

D: Remove the platter(s)

E: Cut the platters into quarters with a pair of tin snips.(It's no more difficult than cutting up a credit card.)

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Someone just starting out could get into data destruction with an investment of under fifty dollars. As you make money with it re-invest the profits into buying better tools & machinery. That way you won't have to pay tax on your income.

Just don't let your customer see how easy it is.