"SH" wrote in message
...

Yup all that, then repurpose the discs as coasters, having roughed up the
surface a bit / given them a wipe over with a neodymium magnet.

That won't fly with SWMBO, she will not recognise them as coasters and
would throw them in the bin.

Time to trade her in on a less stupid bimbo.

Skip all the above dissassembly steps, place drive on concrete floor, hit
robustly with 14lb sledge several times. That is enough to bend the
entire drive, platters and all, so it can't be spun up or read by any
conventional method. (Yes there is a fair chance that GCHQ or the NSA
might be able to get something back off them, but they are not the folks
I am trying to keep out!)

The Hard drive is based on arather substantial frame (most likely to be
aluminium. I'd rather direct the destructive energy onto the individual
platters otherwise, you can;t gaurantee the destructive energy *is*
getting through to the platters if you're hitting the entire drive.....

Plus some drives have multiple platters......