For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1844687
So,

I've a knackered phone, and a knackered USB drive. Both are ruggedised, both if somebody could repair them contain data that might be regarded as confidential (although was all backed up, so that is not a problem).

What do I do to dispose of them, that ensures no risk to my data, and ideally gets the various rare elements and so-on within them recycled?

All thoughts and recommendations welcomed.

G
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By Pete L
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1844690
So far I don't think I've actually disposed of a disk drive or smartphone - the total volume is such that I will be long dead before I run out of space. Tempting to bury it for the archaeologists. (Did they clad themselves in shiny disks made from exotic materials? Was this mechanism used to predict the motion of the stars? Why is this mirror black?).

We used a similar tactic a couple of employers ago - even after 10 years the total volume of the dead drives was barely more than a couple of cardboard boxes. But this was mostly code rather than large volumes of other people's personal data or experimental data sets.
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1844702
You could always connect 240VDC across VDD of the relevant component...
Or just bung it in the microwave.
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By eltonioni
#1844705
I have a small stack of old extracted HDDs under my desk. A high-security solution if ever there was one.
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
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By Flasheart
#1844716
I've worked at various aerospace engineering firms, and they've all had secure disposal contracts as part of their ISO9100 quality management system; or contracts with companies like Airbus have stipulated disposal requirements. As a result, I've been able to dispose of a hard drive through this, as companies like "Shred-it" provide a disposal certificate, and claim to recycle the metals etc.

So if you have a friendly aerospace firm (other industries are available) with this setup, it may be a way forward.
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By Flying_john
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1844923
Ping the hard disks open and remove the platters, make great mirrors or bird scarers if strung together.

OR....
Keep one in your emergency kit incase you bailout or land out and use them as a sun reflector to alert those searching for you. I think there is a fancy name for these but can't remember.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1844928
Flying_john wrote:Keep one in your emergency kit incase you bailout or land out and use them as a sun reflector to alert those searching for you. I think there is a fancy name for these but can't remember.


CDs?
kanga, Rob P liked this
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By Flying_john
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1844979
Paul_Sengupta wrote:
Flying_john wrote:Keep one in your emergency kit incase you bailout or land out and use them as a sun reflector to alert those searching for you. I think there is a fancy name for these but can't remember.


CDs?


Not as shiny as a hard disk platter