EPROM eraser?

[HipoGear]

At the risk of posting a stupid question here ... Does anybody know if an EPROM eraser would do any erasing of hard drive platters?
My thought is that they are probably completely different beasts. Before I break down this EPROM eraser, I just thought I would ask if there was any better use for it.
Thanks!

[Mmarro89]

At the risk of posting a stupid question here ... Does anybody know if an EPROM eraser would do any erasing of hard drive platters?
My thought is that they are probably completely different beasts. Before I break down this EPROM eraser, I just thought I would ask if there was any better use for it.
Thanks!

Never heard of an EPROM eraser since all you have to do is remove the sticker over the window. Exposure to UV light erases all programming on the EPROM. However if the unit you have is capable of writing to EPROMs you might have a good eBay item if it is in working order. People who refurbish pinball and other older arcade machines use these, do some research before busting it up.

[HipoGear]

It is an ultraviolet eprom eraser. They are all over ebay, new and old for around $15. Just don't know enough to know how ultraviolet erasing works. I would assume that this would be condensed UV. It has a timer on it.

[webuyselltradestuff]

EPROM erasers or reprogrammers are a completely different animal than something that will reset hard drive platters.

Hard drive platters...must use a degausser (with a high Oe magnetic field (olister I think is the measurement))...these are MUCH stronger field than any consumer magnets would produce...comes in a wand and a machine for HD and other erasable media (tapes, CD's etc). It completely destroys the data by resetting all the bits of data...it also render hard drive permanently unusable.

They also make a hard drive shredder that will shred the ENTIRE had drive...I am sure you can get one that would just do the platters too (not a regular off the shelf one however)

You can also physically break the platters...scratching them before breaking will make it significantly hard to recover anything if you even could get anything.

Generally for HIPPA compliance...hospitals and other business with cust data...and/or government contract..you will need to degauss or physically shred the drive and give them a COD (certificate of destruction) with serial, and other items on it for their records. Some government ones will want 3,5,7 pass erasing and destruction as well (MUCH more time consuming and therefore you should charge a fair amount)

Hope that helps.

[HipoGear]

Very Good info, thanks!