Shooting At Computer Hard Drives

[billt]

I have had several old desktop computers languishing in my closet for years. One was so old it had Windows 95 in it. Finally my wife wanted rid of them because they were taking up too much space. I didn't want to toss them for fear someone could take the hard drive out and retrieve the information. So I took them out on the patio, pulled them apart, and removed the hard drives.

The other day I took them to the range, along with my Ruger Model 77 Stainless in .30-06. I set them out on a berm at 75 yards, and had at them. The results were all similar to this one. These things are really tough! They're made from a very heavy cast Aluminum housing. The Western Digital models like the one in the photos seem to be the toughest. But the 168 Gr. Sierra Matchking sailed right through, no problem.

The first shot hit just to the left of center, right under the bar code. The next one nicked the edge, but as you can see in the other photo, it blew the whole upper left corner of the housing completely off, exposing the platter and arm. It landed on edge, so I put one edgewise into the right side, and that pretty much finished it off. That last shot blew the unit right over the top of the berm, and I found it about 30 feet on the other side of the berm itself.

The other hard drives all met with a similar fate. It was fun to be able to shoot at something other than paper all the time. And I doubt that anyone will be extracting any information off of them now!

[Solus]

Probably not as much fun, but there are some pretty strong magnets in a hard drive.

Salvage Neodymium Magnets from an Old Hard Drive

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

Back years ago I used to collect obsolete computer equipment and take it to my local range, Knob Creek, (When they still allowed it). One day I took an old 5 meg drive that was about 3"x5"x8" or so out and set up in a lane. The guy beside me asked if he could also shoot at that along with other old computer stuff I had. I told him sure. After talking with him I found out he was also an I.T. guy (only we weren't called that then) and we shot the hell out of that old drive. When I was done shooting I took the drive up to his bench, put it down and asked him if he could de-frag it. He laughed his butt off. Stupid but true.

People LOVE to shoot at old computers. I guess it is payback for a lot of built up frustration.

[Big Frank]

That sounds like a fun way of drilling holes through a hard drive. I didn't know the metal was that thick, but I see it wasn't a problem.

I save magnets but don't know what I did with my old drive. Maybe it's still in the computer at the bottom of a landfill? I have a pair of speaker magnets from when my stereo had a bad case of woofer rot. They're stuck together now and likely to stay that way. It's possible to get them apart but not easy. I slid them apart once when I couldn't pry them apart. Make sure you don't have your fingers or any other body parts between strong magnets when you put them together.

ar154me, was that drive FUBAR, Fragged Up Beyond Any Repair?

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

ar154me, was that drive FUBAR, Fragged Up Beyond Any Repair?

Oh yeah. FMJ .45 at 7 yards did a  number on it.     AND the rest of the computer. It's a lot of fun and a good way to decrease tension.

[Sponsor]

[TAB]

I always just set them on top of my 3p 20hp vacuum pump motor.  It outs out enough magnetic fields to stop cell signals near it, it has too mess them up good.  Shooting sounds more fuming.   Not that I have hard drives  that often.  It's DVD that I have in bulk.  I back up all my work docs once a month. That plus 3 additional copies of every recipt/ invoice I get.  It's disgusting, but when you roll into the irs field office with 3 hand trucks worth of file boxes for 1 year, they never get thru box one.

[Big Frank]

There are a few ways to render those DVDs unreadable when it' time to dispose of them. Grinding down the surface with a machine made just for that purpose should work. Overwriting them 35 times to erase everything could work too. But who has time for that? Anytime I had a DVD or CD I wanted to get rid of I tossed it in the microwave. It didn't matter how long I set it for because it only takes a couple of seconds to do the job. BZZZT! and the metal layer inside the disc gets fried and looks like it's been shattered. A Double Layer DVD or a Blu-ray Disc may take longer. When it starts crackling I immediately stop the microwave before it starts smoking or burning. I never had a problem doing that, and my microwave oven still worked when I threw it away after using it for about 30 years. If I had to do a lot of discs I would have kept the old microwave just for that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JkCIfLE_-M


ETA: Here's someone "Burning a CD-ROM". They're only standing the discs on edge so you can see them. Just tossing them in lying flat works great.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKd92oU9ivs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHMc7XDZlFk

[TAB]

Honestly, I just throw them in a box, as I keep them in the bulk containers they come in.  Works just fine, when the times cones I could always snap them and throw them in a slab some where.  It's one of the few record storege devices that take up so little space.   It's the damn 2 file drawers a year that are killing me.   I finally built horizontal drawers that are 4' long in my shop so I can store them.  I burn the records at 10 years.  Always happens in January, in a fire pit.  I sit out side with a box and feed the fire as I go thru it.   Takes about 4 hours, but I always find about 20 pages I need too keep

[Rastus]

I just noticed or saw again this thread.  It brings a tear to my eye.

The only drive I ever blasted had 1,000 to 2,000 "worthless" bitcoins on it.

Dang, I wish I hadn't noticed this thread.

[Magoo541]

.... Make sure you don't have your fingers or any other body parts between strong magnets when you put them together.

I worked with a Mechanical Engineer, Tom, that relocated out here, Oregon, from Ohio at an Automation Manufacturer.  He told me about a linear magnet rail he was repairing at his old job while everyone was at lunch.  1.5-2" Diameter stack of rare earth magnets made up the rail he was replacing.  Got the old one out and set it on a bench about 6" away from the new one....yep....<CLACK> with his finger in between.  Broke  3 out of the 4 IIRC and he struggle for an eternity trying to escape before everyone came back from lunch.  Eventually they were able to pry the part apart and he took a trip to the ER.