[wheresmyusern]

even if you drill a hole in the drive, data can still be recovered from it. anything that leaves large pieces of drive intact really isnt ideal. over the years i had collected dozens of platters from both myself and other people. for some reason, when i was younger i was obsessed with collecting hard drive magnets and also smart enough to understand that i probably shouldnt throw the platters away. so a few years ago i decided it was time to destroy all of these annoying platters that i have to worry about misplacing. i naturally assumed that it was going to be easy to find some kind of service, shredding or wiping, for hard drives or hard drive platters. there were no good options. so i tried smashing the platters into small pieces, and this worked for some of the thinner laptop hdd platters. one strong hit would break them into millions of tiny pieces. but most of them just bent or dented. and to thoroughly bend and dent the whole surface of all the platters would be super annoying. so i decided i should just melt them -- they are made of aluminum which has a low melting point. it was surprisingly easy. just get an old coffee can or better yet a stainless steel gas cylinder or even a ceramic crucible. they arent too expensive as far as i know. i used a can. then just surround the can with some bricks for insulation and apply a normal blow torch. set the torch down so it blows into the void between your vessel and the brick jacket. after the platters are melted you can even cast them into something, like a belt buckle. its all a bit silly, but it does feel nice to know that it is literally impossible for anyone to ever know what was on those platters.

[kosma]

You don't even need to melt them. Just reaching the Curie point should be enough.

[robocat]

Boiling off the rare earth surfaces and breathing them in could be a health risk?