I just bought your hard drive!!!

[Texas Mac Man]

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/06/one_year_ago_ha.html

[gunug]

I like to open them up, take the platters out (takes a wee small torx bit) and I'm saving them up to make wind chimes (I'll take pictures when I've got some more made up). The little laptop drive I'm looking into right now has two nice and shiny platters.  I suppose we could require places to run them through a big degausing coil; I couldn't imagine getting much data off them after that!

[antony]

When I sent my HDD for repair under warranty, I managed to remove most of content.

Personally I don't recommend saving sensitive information in computer, but if you must, I would suggest people to encrypt them.

(Sorry for the advertisement, I am not affiliated) I recommend Yojimbo, it's a very nice tool to collect all the bits and pieces of information. In there, you can also encrypt your data. Yojimbo uses AES-256 encryption algorithm.
(Sorry for the advertisement again, this time I am not financially benefited.) Once you have Yojimbo, you might want to try Yojimbo Backup QuickPick. (Free, written by me.)

[pendragon]

Antony,

You're in good company. Dave Nanian, the developer of SuperDuoer also raves about Yojimbo. Dave's Blog on Yojimbo

Alas, I have yet to give it a go.  

[Gregg]

They could get a great commercial out of an endorsement from Sly Stallone ("Rocky").

[Mayo]

This story illustrates how important it is to securely delete all sensitive files and encrypt all senstitive data on a computer.

Suggesting that people not keep sensitive data on their computers is a ludicrous notion.  Doing so would greatly reduce the usefulness of a computer; we might as well go back to using manilla file folders and filing cabinets for storing data.  Of course, it is arguable that "analog" data storage is a lot more vulnerable than properly secured computer data.

[Dreambird]

What if you turn on File Vault on your HD through System Prefs just before you take it in for repairs?

Isn't that supposed to encrypt your whole home folder so well that if you don't know the password the HD becomes a paperweight?

... or what about a low level format if the drive isn't so hatched you can't do that?

[Mayo]

I think that the problem is that you are counting on being able to access the drive after it begins exhibiting symptoms and that isn't always possible. And there is forensic software available that apparently can extract data from drives that have been formatted. I consider that a relatively low risk, but it is possible.

When I had the drive replaced in my G3 iBook the shop returned the old drive to me, which is the best thing to do if the people who do the repair agree to it.

It's just a good idea to get into the habit of encrypting and shredding data, just like it is a good idea to shred financial and personal papers that are thrown away.

[LR827]

I like the caveat at the end of the article...

"Bring your own drill."

[antony]

QUOTE(Dreambird @ Jun 9 2006, 08:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What if you turn on File Vault on your HD through System Prefs just before you take it in for repairs?

Isn't that supposed to encrypt your whole home folder so well that if you don't know the password the HD becomes a paperweight?

That would work, but personally I don't recommend that...
Because File Vault depends on the Operating System. The operating system might screw up some time (you might not be able to boot into OS X) and all your files will be gone. This happened to my friend. Her iBook became unbootable one day for no reason. All her encrypted data (by File Vault) were gone after re-installing OS X.

And similar situation happened to me once with Windows XP, and I lost all encrypted data what was encrypted by Windows XP's built-in encryption. Re-installing Windows XP did not help at all.

[Mayo]

I have always preferred encryption methods that work on the file or the folder level. Ditto regarding databases. It makes no sense to me to store data in huge files where if the file becomes corrupted ALL the data is lost. It is one reason I use Eudora for e-mail: if one message "breaks" it doesn't affect all the other messages.

And, of course, all files should be backed-up, preferably multiple copies...