Re: What about OLD computers??

[Dossy Shiobara <dossy -at- panoptic -dot- com>]

voxwoman wrote:
> Pull the drives out. Other than wiping with a large electromagnet, the data
> is recoverable by someone who is really determined.

Actually, FWIW, it _is_ actually possible (and not just theoretically,
but has actually been performed) to recover data even after perturbing
it with a large magnet and/or writing over the data many times.

The only known way to destroy data in a way that has no known recovery
technique is to melt the platters down into slag.  Before you laugh:
yes, there are places where information security is important enough
where drives are "shredded" (think: paper shredder, but MUCH larger and
robust) and then melted into slag, then discarded.

-- 
Dossy Shiobara              | dossy -at- panoptic -dot- com | http://dossy.org/
Panoptic Computer Network   | http://panoptic.com/
  "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
    folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)

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