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<span class="escape-link"><a href="//tech.slashdot.org/story/05/06/24/2138205/death-on-demand-drive-tech" title="Back to Article - Death On Demand Drive Tech">Death On Demand Drive Tech</a></span>
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<h2 class="commentspl test"><a title="Back to Article - Death On Demand Drive Tech" href="//tech.slashdot.org/story/05/06/24/2138205/death-on-demand-drive-tech">Death On Demand Drive Tech</a></h2>
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<span class="by"><span class="byby">by </span><a rel="nofollow" href="//slashdot.org/~wooby">wooby</a> <span class="uid"><a rel="nofollow" href="//slashdot.org/~wooby">( 786765 )</a></span></a></span><span class="writes" style="display:none"> writes:</span>
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on Friday June 24, 2005 @08:37PM (<span class="ind"></span><a rel="nofollow" href="//slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=153847&cid=12906189">#12906189</a>)
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<div id="comment_body_12906189">I've wondered sometimes about the best way to quickly destroy a hard disk. It's difficult to come up with a relatively safe way to go about it. My best idea was a thermite insert that stood between the cover plate and the platter, and stock drives could be modified. This is also horribly dangerous. The idea in the article is much better and safer.</div>
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<span class="by"><span class="byby">by </span><a rel="nofollow" href="//slashdot.org/~villageidiot357">villageidiot357</a> <span class="uid"><a rel="nofollow" href="//slashdot.org/~villageidiot357">( 808966 )</a></span></a></span><span class="writes" style="display:none"> writes:</span>
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<div id="comment_body_12906393">How terribly dangerous would thermite be? Aluminum and rust aren't going to do anything by themselves. You just have to worry about whatever you are using to set the thermite off going off prematurely. Even then you are not risking an explosion. Just a fire.
Of course depending on what was compromised a fire might be usful afterall.</div>
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<span class="by"><span class="byby">by </span><a rel="nofollow" href="//slashdot.org/~dbIII">dbIII</a> <span class="uid"><a rel="nofollow" href="//slashdot.org/~dbIII">( 701233 )</a></span></a></span><span class="writes" style="display:none"> writes:</span>
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<div id="comment_body_12906399"><blockquote><span class="substr"> </span><div><p> I've wondered sometimes about the best way to quickly destroy a hard disk<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... a thermite insert that stood between the cover plate and the platter</p></div></blockquote><p>Many of us think the same - nothing like powdered aluminium and iron with a bit of heat to turn a drive into molten metal - of course molten metal tends to do horrible things to everything around it.</p><p>
Explosives - an intensive enough shock wave through the platter is going to have the same effect as raising the metal above the curie temperature - all magnetic in</p></div>
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<div id="comment_body_12906763">PLOW: Yep the old form of dragging the heads across the media. Simulating a Vinyl records with a stylus. Works every time!</div>
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<div id="comment_body_12906449">Thermite is how I would go about it as well. However, I believe it can be done safely - you just have to<span class="substr"> </span><ul> <li>1) Use a minimal amount of thermite.</li><li>2) Properly isolate the booby-trapped drive.</li></ul><p>1) would just require a bit of experimentation on old dead drives. I believe you can get away with using fairly little thermite (although some overkill doesn't hurt) - you don't have to melt the entire hard drive, casing and all, you just have to scorch the platters beyond recovery.<br>2) should also be quite doable - since</p></div>
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<div id="comment_body_12906646">Wrap the drive entirely in primacord. When the primacord goes off, it'll crush the drive.</div>
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<div id="comment_body_12906698">a large model rocket engine strapped to the drive should work, but i wouldn't trust it without testing it to ensure it could burn through thr drive well enough</div>
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<div id="comment_body_12907271">I've been told that the U.S. Army has "shoot here to destroy computer" stickers on their communications and cryptographic equipment, and that one of the things they're trained on is "what to destroy if the equipment is about to fall into enemy hands" and "how to destroy it".
<p>
I suspect it's actually a much easier problem to solve when your users' day jobs involve munitions.</p></div>
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<div id="comment_body_12911355">I've never seen your "shoot here" stickers, but I've worked with a US Army Special Forces team and one of their first orders of business was to consolidate the communications/crypto gear and rig it up with demolitions in the headquarters. Also rigged to explode on a moments notice were maps and extra ammunition.</div>
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