On 2012-03-08, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Adam Funk wrote:
On 2012-03-07, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Adam Funk writes:
On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?
The shredders I've come across with CD slots just scratch the surfaces
up a bit rather than break them into bits.
I had a large pile, and didn't like the idea of feeding them
all through the microwave, in case it damaged it.

I did for them on the gas hob - A few seconds over the
burner for each one (held by pliers), and they're wrecked.
The smell is pretty bad though - need to open the window.

The smell (along with whatever else is in the fumes) is one reason I
don't like the microwave idea. (I keep my microwave oven in the
house.)


microwaving doesn't make a smel. It simply destroys the metallized layer
beyond all home of reading.

How much would burning a pile of these (let's say an A4 copy paper box
full) outdoors stink up & irritate the neighbourhood?

don't burn them MICROWAVE them

Full power 10 seconds and then stick it back in the CD drive and try and
read it

Maybe NCIS can read it, but no one in the real world

OK, I haven't tried it yet, so I wondered if it might heat the plastic
up.

Adam Funk wrote:
On 2012-03-08, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Adam Funk wrote:
On 2012-03-07, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Adam Funk writes:
On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?
The shredders I've come across with CD slots just scratch the surfaces
up a bit rather than break them into bits.
I had a large pile, and didn't like the idea of feeding them
all through the microwave, in case it damaged it.

I did for them on the gas hob - A few seconds over the
burner for each one (held by pliers), and they're wrecked.
The smell is pretty bad though - need to open the window.
The smell (along with whatever else is in the fumes) is one reason I
don't like the microwave idea. (I keep my microwave oven in the
house.)

microwaving doesn't make a smel. It simply destroys the metallized layer
beyond all home of reading.

How much would burning a pile of these (let's say an A4 copy paper box
full) outdoors stink up & irritate the neighbourhood?
don't burn them MICROWAVE them

Full power 10 seconds and then stick it back in the CD drive and try and
read it

Maybe NCIS can read it, but no one in the real world

OK, I haven't tried it yet, so I wondered if it might heat the plastic
up.

plastic is an insulator.

It's the metal that gets got and vaporises or any conductive layer.

The great thing about microwaves is that they heat conductors, not
insulators

I know this technique works with metallised stamped CDs - I have tried
it with writeable media tho.

But I would imagine they are as good.

It's also a great light show


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

Adam Funk wrote:
On 2012-03-09, Steve Firth wrote:

Adam Funk wrote:

On 2012-03-08, Steve Firth wrote:

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
[Burning CDs]

The smell is pretty bad though - need to open the window.
The dye used is pthalocyanine some of it will be released as cyanide by
burning. Not advised in a confined space such as a kitchen.
I thought I'd heard something like that, hence my question. However,
I guess this isn't a problem with the quick blast in the microwave?
I wouldn't think the microwave would be a problem. I use a cross-cutting
shredder for cds, it's less of problem than any other disposal method.
However I think the shredder cost around £700 so it's not a home use
option.

Yes, way out of my budget.

In the past the technique used was a propane torch and a firebrick
hearth to melt down CDs and Hard Disk platters.

With a good way to clear the cyanide & other fumes, I hope.

I'll test the microwave idea sometime soon.

10 seconds only for a music CD.

Unless you enjoy watching the sparks..

--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

Frank Erskine wrote:


I have a much cheaper (crosscut) shredder - around 20 quid from
Rymans, and it seems quite capable of destroying the odd CD/DVD.

"Seems" and "odd" being the appropriate terms. The cross-cutting
security shredders I refer to destroy a CD to a standard that I will
accept as destroyed. Many of the cheaper versions will split a disk in
half and assume that's good enough. Also all of the cheap versions will
choke on continuous operation.

It all depends what you want to achieve, and since I don't pay for the
shredders that I suse, cost is not something I consider. Compliance to
accepted standards and robustness are.

In article , Adam Funk
writes
On 2012-03-08, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

microwaving doesn't make a smel. It simply destroys the metallized layer
beyond all home of reading.

How much would burning a pile of these (let's say an A4 copy paper box
full) outdoors stink up & irritate the neighbourhood?

don't burn them MICROWAVE them

Full power 10 seconds and then stick it back in the CD drive and try and
read it

Maybe NCIS can read it, but no one in the real world

OK, I haven't tried it yet, so I wondered if it might heat the plastic
up.

It takes only a second in the microwave but in my experience it does
stink in the worst possible way, it may depend on whether the metalised
surface is bare, printable or commercially printed.

These days I snip across the data area with a pair of tinsnips, the
finely serrated edge types. One snip should make a disk unreadable as it
will distort the disk and break every track, and trying to read the disk
would tear the optics of the drive to pieces. Two snips, one opposite
the other, makes it more secure and easy to fold over and break if
desired. Half the time the disk delaminates too making it totally
un-un-unreadable.
--
fred
it's a ba-na-na . . . .

Adam Funk wrote:

I wouldn't think the microwave would be a problem. I use a cross-cutting
shredder for cds, it's less of problem than any other disposal method.
However I think the shredder cost around £700 so it's not a home use
option.

Yes, way out of my budget.

And mine, fortunately my clients are keen on destroying media thoroughly
once they have finished with them.

In the past the technique used was a propane torch and a firebrick
hearth to melt down CDs and Hard Disk platters.

With a good way to clear the cyanide & other fumes, I hope.

Done in the open air, so plenty of ventilation.

The Natural Philosopher

don't burn them MICROWAVE them

Full power 10 seconds and then stick it back in the CD drive and try and read it.

Actually, having tried it tonight I can say that it takes a *lot* less than
10 seconds. The moment you see a flash, stop the microwave. It only takes
a fraction of a second and there's no burning smell. The metallic layer is
completely "crazed" the moment you see sparks.

Tim

Tim wrote:
The Natural Philosopher
don't burn them MICROWAVE them

Full power 10 seconds and then stick it back in the CD drive and try and read it.

Actually, having tried it tonight I can say that it takes a *lot* less than
10 seconds. The moment you see a flash, stop the microwave. It only takes
a fraction of a second and there's no burning smell. The metallic layer is
completely "crazed" the moment you see sparks.

Tim

yebbut its really far out man, if you leave them in a bit longer, with
the lights out after a couple if good bongs.


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On 2012-03-11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

yebbut its really far out man, if you leave them in a bit longer, with
the lights out after a couple if good bongs.

Oh, *that* kind of "natural philosophy"!

Adam Funk wrote:
On 2012-03-11, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

yebbut its really far out man, if you leave them in a bit longer, with
the lights out after a couple if good bongs.

Oh, *that* kind of "natural philosophy"!

Thank **** someone has some humour left this morning.


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On 2012-03-09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Adam Funk wrote:

OK, I haven't tried it yet, so I wondered if it might heat the plastic
up.

plastic is an insulator.

It's the metal that gets got and vaporises or any conductive layer.

The great thing about microwaves is that they heat conductors, not
insulators

I know this technique works with metallised stamped CDs - I have tried
it with writeable media tho.

But I would imagine they are as good.

It's also a great light show

Yes, it looks impressive, even without dope, although it stinks a
little bit. I found about 6 seconds sufficed for doing 2 at a time,
but (in my microwave, at least) it seemed to work if the CDs were
nearly vertical (leaning against a mug) but not horizontally.

I do not get this thread... You want to make the data non-recoverable?

Create a vice.
- B&D workbench, vice bolted to bench, plywood squares separated by a
gap & central bolt to slide CD down over and even another "template"
over the top to shield most of the CD from flying about.
Whack the CD.
- Wear goggles, club hammer, club hammer & brick bolster.

It is non recoverable to anyone without very specialist custom
tracking equipment.

Colleague modified a press to shear a stack at a time with a simple
jig assembled out of flat bars. Do not burn them, the chemicals
released are noxious.

If this is to destroy financial data - any company, employer, business
development manager or gov't agency can get bank details and full bank
statements either under the table or legitimately. Bank staff have
absolutely no integrity.

I should add, it is very advisable to keep at least one copy of all
data. You never know what you may need a decade or two down the line,
or how valuable that data may be.

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:43:27 -0700 (PDT), "js.b1"
wrote:

I do not get this thread... You want to make the data non-recoverable?

Create a vice.
- B&D workbench, vice bolted to bench, plywood squares separated by a
gap & central bolt to slide CD down over and even another "template"
over the top to shield most of the CD from flying about.
Whack the CD.
- Wear goggles, club hammer, club hammer & brick bolster.

It is non recoverable to anyone without very specialist custom
tracking equipment.

Colleague modified a press to shear a stack at a time with a simple
jig assembled out of flat bars. Do not burn them, the chemicals
released are noxious.

If this is to destroy financial data - any company, employer, business
development manager or gov't agency can get bank details and full bank
statements either under the table or legitimately. Bank staff have
absolutely no integrity.

I should add, it is very advisable to keep at least one copy of all
data. You never know what you may need a decade or two down the line,
or how valuable that data may be.

I bought one of these about three years ago:
http://www.shreddingmachines.co.uk/s...Shred-Shredder
or: http://tinyurl.com/6opzuay

It turns a CD or DVD into 6mm x 3mm pieces in about 8 seconds.

MM

On Mar 20, 5:33*pm, MM wrote:
I bought one of these about three years ago:
or:http://tinyurl.com/6opzuay
It turns a CD or DVD into 6mm x 3mm pieces in about 8 seconds.

2 year warranty, but it is £100.
If you have a lot of general shredding the machines are useful.

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:36:09 -0700 (PDT), "js.b1"
wrote:

On Mar 20, 5:33*pm, MM wrote:
I bought one of these about three years ago:
or:http://tinyurl.com/6opzuay
It turns a CD or DVD into 6mm x 3mm pieces in about 8 seconds.

2 year warranty, but it is £100.
If you have a lot of general shredding the machines are useful.

Any *decent* shredder, i.e. not the kind one buys in Tesco's, is going
to cost a few bob.

MM

On Mar 20, 7:48*pm, MM wrote:
Any *decent* shredder, i.e. not the kind one buys in Tesco's, is going
to cost a few bob.

Indeed, but why buy one for what may be just a few hundred CDs?

- Paper can be simply burnt in an old metal can.
- CDs can be fractured in a few minutes. Get a stack, put one on a
piece of plywood, whack a brick bolster with a club hammer twice
radially, place it in bin, get the next one, repeat.

Shredders are sort of like electric bread knifes.

js.b1 wrote:
On Mar 20, 7:48 pm, MM wrote:
Any *decent* shredder, i.e. not the kind one buys in Tesco's, is going
to cost a few bob.

Indeed, but why buy one for what may be just a few hundred CDs?

- Paper can be simply burnt in an old metal can.
- CDs can be fractured in a few minutes. Get a stack, put one on a
piece of plywood, whack a brick bolster with a club hammer twice
radially, place it in bin, get the next one, repeat.

Shredders are sort of like electric bread knifes.

CDS can be utterly destroyed in packs of twenty at a time, inside 10
seconds, in a microwave.

so why bother being arty farty?

--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On Mar 20, 8:32*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
CDS can be utterly destroyed in packs of twenty at a time, inside 10
seconds, in a microwave. so why bother being arty farty?

Indeed, although I prefer not using food appliances for such
applications.
Yes I did use a spare oven with a powder coating kit once :-)

I just see no point spending £100 on a product to shred CDs unless you
need to do 100+ a day.

My experience of CD is dreadful, early laser-calibration & dye, where
some self destructed in 3 months.

js.b1 wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote

CDS can be utterly destroyed in packs of twenty at a time, inside
10 seconds, in a microwave. so why bother being arty farty?

Indeed, although I prefer not using food appliances for such applications.

You can get them at garage/yard sales for peanuts if you are that fussy.

Yes I did use a spare oven with a powder coating kit once :-)

I just see no point spending £100 on a product
to shred CDs unless you need to do 100+ a day.

My experience of CD is dreadful, early laser-calibration
& dye, where some self destructed in 3 months.

On Mar 20, 11:02*pm, "brass monkey" wrote:
What do you guys do with old hard drives?

DBAN.

Does take a long time to run on old or very large hard drives.
Available for a few £ as a linux bootup disk, runs like a DOS 6.0
screen, gives time to complete, various levels of security.

Then you can sell the hard drive on Ebay either for storage or parts.
Plenty of people buy to maintain a large inventory of hard drives to
repair client's units. Data recovery is very expensive, there are
often a lot of iterations of a particular hard drive model and a
replacement PCB has to match.

So destroying a working or commercially re-usable hard drive is
unnecessary.

On Mar 7, 1:11*pm, Adam Funk wrote:
On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?

CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space them
apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just long
enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic or
there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to use a
cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a fixed
timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting them hot
enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is easier, although you do
need a hefty shredder.

"js.b1" wrote in message
...
On Mar 20, 11:02 pm, "brass monkey" wrote:
What do you guys do with old hard drives?

DBAN.

Does take a long time to run on old or very large hard drives.
Available for a few £ as a linux bootup disk, runs like a DOS 6.0
screen, gives time to complete, various levels of security.

Then you can sell the hard drive on Ebay either for storage or parts.
Plenty of people buy to maintain a large inventory of hard drives to
repair client's units. Data recovery is very expensive, there are
often a lot of iterations of a particular hard drive model and a
replacement PCB has to match.

So destroying a working or commercially re-usable hard drive is
unnecessary.

In the past i've used wipedrive pro, takes quite a while though.

Seems a bit overkil when surely cutting the disc into pieces weither with a
cheap shredder from Argos or a large pair of shears is just as good. Who in
the world would bother to attempt to retrive data from broken cds.
Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Mar 7, 1:11 pm, Adam Funk wrote:
On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?

CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space them
apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just long
enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic or
there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to use a
cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a fixed
timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting them hot
enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is easier, although you do
need a hefty shredder.

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Seems a bit overkil when surely cutting the disc into pieces weither with
a cheap shredder from Argos or a large pair of shears is just as good. Who
in the world would bother to attempt to retrive data from broken cds.
Brian

If the data is worth it you can use a microscope and read the pits by eye.
It probably wont happen for a password to a bike lock but it might for a
name and address of a spy.
I dare say someone will have done software to read scanned images to make it
quicker.

You could even remove the protective lacquer and redeposit aluminium back on
the disk to make it machine readable if you wanted to spend the effort.

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:31:06 -0700 (PDT), Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Mar 7, 1:11*pm, Adam Funk wrote:
On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?

CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space them
apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just long
enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic or
there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to use a
cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a fixed
timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting them hot
enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is easier, although you do
need a hefty shredder.

I do not understand this penchant for microwaving CDs! Toxic,
extremely obnoxious fumes will be released. Do people just put up with
the stench permeating their houses? Crazy, when there are shredders
available for the price of a decent meal for two or a tankful of fuel.
You actually BOUGHT a new microwave, then modded it?!! Risible, when
you could have simply bought a shredder. Since I bought mine, there
are new models on the market that are considerably cheaper (under 40
quid). It's a no-brainer.

MM

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:56:24 -0000, Brian Gaff wrote:

Who in the world would bother to attempt to retrive data from broken
cds.

Depends entirely on the percieved value of the data. You might be
quite tempted to put quite a lot of effort into recovering the
winning numbers for the next 100 million Euro Millions draw for
example.

--
Cheers
Dave.

MM wrote
Andy Dingley wrote
Adam Funk wrote

On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?

CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space
them apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just
long enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic
or there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to
use a cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a
fixed timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting
them hot enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is
easier, although you do need a hefty shredder.

I do not understand this penchant for microwaving CDs!

Its the quickest and easiest way to make them unreadable.

Toxic, extremely obnoxious fumes will be released.

Nope, not if you only give them 10 secs at most.

Do people just put up with the stench permeating their houses?

Doesnt happen if you only give them 10 secs at most.

Crazy, when there are shredders available for the
price of a decent meal for two or a tankful of fuel.

Using the microwave doesnt cost anything like that.

You actually BOUGHT a new microwave, then modded it?!!
Risible, when you could have simply bought a shredder.

Nope.

Since I bought mine, there are new models on the market that
are considerably cheaper (under 40 quid). It's a no-brainer.

Its a no brainer to use the microwave for free.

On 21/03/2012 07:56, Brian Gaff wrote:
Seems a bit overkil when surely cutting the disc into pieces weither with a
cheap shredder from Argos or a large pair of shears is just as good. Who in
the world would bother to attempt to retrive data from broken cds.
Brian

Forensic data recovery specialists.
But there would have to be a very good reason to do it.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Brian Gaff wrote:

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting them hot
enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is easier, although you do
need a hefty shredder.

We bought a cross-cut shredder from Tescos (I think) for some silly
low price (like a tenner) and it has a CD slot. Only tried it once as
a curiosity and it worked well!

Gordon

In article om,
brass monkey wrote:

What do you guys do with old hard drives? 40/100 gig etc. Do you actually
wipe them, smash the electronics or show'em a sledge to smash the platters?

Big splitting axe. One chop and in the bin. Nothing - seriously - nothing
is going to recover the data from physically mangled platters (or the
shattered shards of really old ones with glass platters)

Gordon

Brian Gaff wrote:

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting them hot
enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is easier, although you do
need a hefty shredder.


IME CDs can be nuked easier than writable CD media


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

MM wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:31:06 -0700 (PDT), Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Mar 7, 1:11 pm, Adam Funk wrote:
On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?
CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space them
apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just long
enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic or
there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to use a
cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a fixed
timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting them hot
enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is easier, although you do
need a hefty shredder.

I do not understand this penchant for microwaving CDs! Toxic,
extremely obnoxious fumes will be released.

Absolute bull****.

You simply dont understand: you are rapidly heating the conductive
metallisation which arcs and splits apart without even getting the
plastic hot.

It uses the properties of the microwave to put heat into conductors, not
into plastics. A couple of seconds is all it takes and there is no
plastic melting or fumes.


Do people just put up with
the stench permeating their houses?

No,. they do it the way descrued

Crazy, when there are shredders
available for the price of a decent meal for two or a tankful of fuel.
You actually BOUGHT a new microwave, then modded it?!! Risible, when
you could have simply bought a shredder. Since I bought mine, there
are new models on the market that are considerably cheaper (under 40
quid). It's a no-brainer.


No, using a microwave you already have on full power for a few seconds
is far cheaper, faster, uses less energy, creates no fumes and leaves
you with neat disposable platters totally undamaged except inside in the
data later itself

MM


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

Rod Speed wrote:
MM wrote
Andy Dingley wrote
Adam Funk wrote

On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?

CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space
them apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just
long enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic
or there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to
use a cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a
fixed timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting
them hot enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is
easier, although you do need a hefty shredder.

I do not understand this penchant for microwaving CDs!

Its the quickest and easiest way to make them unreadable.

Toxic, extremely obnoxious fumes will be released.

Nope, not if you only give them 10 secs at most.

Do people just put up with the stench permeating their houses?

Doesnt happen if you only give them 10 secs at most.

Crazy, when there are shredders available for the
price of a decent meal for two or a tankful of fuel.

Using the microwave doesnt cost anything like that.

You actually BOUGHT a new microwave, then modded it?!!
Risible, when you could have simply bought a shredder.

Nope.

Since I bought mine, there are new models on the market that
are considerably cheaper (under 40 quid). It's a no-brainer.

Its a no brainer to use the microwave for free.


And it destroys the data utterly - you aren't left with even a few mm of
potentially readable track.


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:43:27 -0700 (PDT), "js.b1"
wrote:

I do not get this thread... You want to make the data non-recoverable?

Create a vice.
- B&D workbench, vice bolted to bench, plywood squares separated by a
gap & central bolt to slide CD down over and even another "template"
over the top to shield most of the CD from flying about.
Whack the CD.
- Wear goggles, club hammer, club hammer & brick bolster.

It is non recoverable to anyone without very specialist custom
tracking equipment.

So it is recoverable then, a waste of time and effort.

Colleague modified a press to shear a stack at a time with a simple
jig assembled out of flat bars.

Still recoverable

Do not burn them, the chemicals released are noxious.

But done right, the data is non recoverable.

Even with a well equipped workshop (or two) I wouldn't **** about
cutting or bashing them to bits, I'd stick them in the microwave for a
few seconds.
--

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:52:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote:

MM wrote
Andy Dingley wrote
Adam Funk wrote

On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?

CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space
them apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just
long enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic
or there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to
use a cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a
fixed timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting
them hot enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is
easier, although you do need a hefty shredder.

I do not understand this penchant for microwaving CDs!

Its the quickest and easiest way to make them unreadable.

Toxic, extremely obnoxious fumes will be released.

Nope, not if you only give them 10 secs at most.

Do people just put up with the stench permeating their houses?

Doesnt happen if you only give them 10 secs at most.

Crazy, when there are shredders available for the
price of a decent meal for two or a tankful of fuel.

Using the microwave doesnt cost anything like that.

You actually BOUGHT a new microwave, then modded it?!!
Risible, when you could have simply bought a shredder.

Nope.

Since I bought mine, there are new models on the market that
are considerably cheaper (under 40 quid). It's a no-brainer.

Its a no brainer to use the microwave for free.

And then heat up your evening meal in the same microwave?

Someone pick me up off the floor, please, as I appear to be rolling
around laughing my arse off!

MM

MM wrote:
On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:52:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"

Its a no brainer to use the microwave for free.

And then heat up your evening meal in the same microwave?

Someone pick me up off the floor, please, as I appear to be rolling
around laughing my arse off!



what, about 'the plastic never even gets hot' did you NOT understand and
the 'it doesn't create any fumes or smell'

Dickhead.

Cant admio you are plain wrong can you?

MM


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On 2012-03-20, js.b1 wrote:

On Mar 20, 11:02Â*pm, "brass monkey" wrote:
What do you guys do with old hard drives?

DBAN.

Does take a long time to run on old or very large hard drives.
Available for a few £ as a linux bootup disk, runs like a DOS 6.0
screen, gives time to complete, various levels of security.

DBAN is free (in both senses of the word).

http://www.dban.org/download

(Obviously you have to buy your own blank CD.)

On Mar 21, 8:44*am, MM wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:31:06 -0700 (PDT), Andy Dingley









wrote:
On Mar 7, 1:11*pm, Adam Funk wrote:
On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data CDs?

CDs or CD-ROMs?

If they're CD-ROMs, you can microwave them. You need to space them
apart if you're doing a batch (plastic toastrack, or else a $500
silicon wafer processing boat). You also need to do them for just long
enough to nuke the data layer, but without cooking the plastic or
there's a fume problem. For regular industrial use I was able to use a
cheap domestic microwave from Currys, but had to mod it with a fixed
timer and a single big push button.

CDs can't be nuked to reliably kill the data without getting them hot
enough to cause a fume problem. Shredding is easier, although you do
need a hefty shredder.

I do not understand this penchant for microwaving CDs! Toxic,
extremely obnoxious fumes will be released. Do people just put up with
the stench permeating their houses?

I always thought that doing such things in a microwave could damage
the oven.
As your'e not mean to put matalic objects in them, well I guess
tehre's not much metal on 1 CD.


Crazy, when there are shredders
available for the price of a decent meal for two or a tankful of fuel.

or a good night in the pub.

You actually BOUGHT a new microwave, then modded it?!! Risible, when
you could have simply bought a shredder. Since I bought mine, there
are new models on the market that are considerably cheaper (under 40
quid). It's a no-brainer.

Maybe it's just fun to nuke CD's


MM

MM wrote:
On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:52:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote:

Its a no brainer to use the microwave for free.

And then heat up your evening meal in the same microwave?

Someone pick me up off the floor, please, as I appear to be rolling
around laughing my arse off!

Go on, do tell us the joke.

Tim

Gordon Henderson wrote
brass monkey wrote

What do you guys do with old hard drives? 40/100
gig etc. Do you actually wipe them, smash the
electronics or show'em a sledge to smash the platters?

Big splitting axe. One chop and in the bin. Nothing - seriously -
nothing is going to recover the data from physically mangled platters

I dont buy that anymore after seeing what could be recovered
from a floppy that had been aggressively cut up with a pair of
scissors in one of those crime docos.

Its much easier with a CD you can do it optically.

Corse its only the authoritys who would bother,
its unlikely anyone would bother just to get your
financial info etc unless you were a drug baron etc.

(or the shattered shards of really old ones with glass platters)