Not surprising,

If you take one apart before you sledge it, you'll see the base plate is a
sollid chunk of casting, they have to be to maintain the close tolerances.

The main spindle that the platters are on is in the center of the device so
if you smacked it in the center your sledge was pretty much striking a
sollid round piece of metal that got pushed directly on to the anvil, ya
might as well have his a 2 inch round aluminum.

Best way to get maximun destruction in one blow would be to grab it in a
vise about a 1/3 of the way up, below what would be the spindle and the hole
it goes through, then smack the **** out of it, you'll have a better chance
of cracking the base plate casting where the spindle goes through.

--.- Dave

"Ignoramus17253" wrote in message
...
I had a surprising experience recently. I took a couple of hard drives
and tried to destroy them with a 8 lb sledgehammer. I put a hard drive
on an anvil

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Weld...de-Mini-Anvil/

Then I hit it with a sledgehammer, expecting part to fly away and to
see the hard drive utterly demolished. But no such thing occurred.

Barely any damage was visible on the drive (though, probably, it would
no longer function). After many more hits, finally, the hard drive was
shoring visible deformation of its frame. I am rather amazed as to how
tough the hard drives are.

i