Testing Grounds

Many people have heard about how to format a hard drive. Some mistakenly believe that just because you can’t view your data, that means its not there anymore. Formatting C:/ does nothing but delete the references to your data, the data is still there for people to find if they are looking for it. There are many programs that can detect this data and recover it – for both good and bad purposes. I know of a few live Linux installs that can do this, see my earlier about live Linux CD’s for those those.

I would like to mention that there is no sure-fire way of deleting data from magnetic media. If you overwrite it, delete it, or wipe it, there will always be a way to recover the original data. However, there is a bright side to that flaw, just because you can recover it, doesn’t mean it will be cost productive for a thief or other interested party to do so. The following tip will help reduce the likelihood of data recovery, but once again there is no sure fire way of protecting your magnetic data – short of igniting a pound of thermite over your hard drive and melting it.

If you are selling your computer you either want to wipe the hard drive completely, or destroy it and make the buyer get their own. Personally, I like taking the hard drive out and making a clock out of it. But for those who need to sell the hard drive too, here is a free (I’m all about some free) program that has 4 built in flavors of wiping your hard drive – or just individual files. It’s called Eraser, and its homepage is here:

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Eraser uses 4 main algorithms that overwrite the data you tell it to. It will overwrite 1, 5, 7, or 35 times. The 1st option uses only random data to overwrite the data, the second and third options use a Department of Defense algorithm, and the last one uses the Gutmann method. It is one of the best methods out there to reduce the likelihood of data recovery.

With Eraser you can create automated erasure events, erase the free space on your hard drive, and choose a custom method for erasing. Meaning that you can customize the number of times Eraser overwrites data. It can be set anywhere from 1 to something around 999,999 times. Needless to say, It would take a long time for your hard drive to complete that many cycles, but if you had something you absolutely had to make sure that nobody ever saw, you might need to pick that option.

What I like most about Eraser is the addition of an “Erase” option when you left click on files and folders in Windows. I never “delete” anything anymore, I erase it.

Have an old Quantum Fireball laying around collecting dust? Does that 1990′s era, 4 GB hard drive in your desk drawer make you laugh when you think of your 1 TB RAID Array? Well turn it into something useful! This tutorial will show you how to turn that craptastic HDD into a thing of beauty, a clock.

First lets get the material list. It is quite large, and depending on the hard drive you have, you may need more, or less. This is what I needed for a 9.something GB Quantum Fireball from 1998:

• Old/Neglected Hard drive
• Hammer
• Punch
• Drill
• Massive set of drill bits
• Hobby Lobby Clock kit ($5.99)
• Epoxy or other extremely strong glue
• Set of latex gloves (if you have superglue – I’ve glue my fingers together many a time)
• 3/8″ Drill bit capable of drilling through metal
• Parts dish
• Hack saw
• Nail file capable of filing metal
• 2 Hours of free time
• a vice
• 6 inches of stranded copper wire

I think that’s it. A lot of stuff eh? But its worth it, you will be known as the classy geek.

Take all the screws on the outside that you can see off. Then take the ones that you can’t see off. These will be hidden under stickers that said “Warranty Void If Removed”. Screw warranties, we’re making a clock! When you’re done, it should look like this:

Concentrate on the read write head block in the lower left hand corner of the HDD. Take off all the screws circled:

Now you can take that 1st metal piece off. It will have one of the most powerful magnets you have ever seen, and it will take some prying to get off. If it looks like there are no screws holding it together – there isn’t any – its just how powerful the magnet is.

Now take off the final screw holding it all together. Then pop out the read/write block from the HDD. It should now look like this:

Now, start dissembling the screws holding the HDD platters in.

Once that is done, remove all the metal pieces holding the platters in, remove the platters, and you should have this:

Now you get to hammer stuff! See how there is no convenient hole in the middle there to put the shaft of the clock mechanism? Make one. If you’re lucky, the next step will make a hole big enough. If your not, follow the step after and drill a hole in the middle.

Flip the HDD around and use a punch to hammer out the spindle shaft:

When that is accomplished flip it over and take the spindle assembly off:

NOW you have a hole to put a clock mechanism into. Or do you? In this case the hole is not big enough. This is where the drill bit comes in handy:

The Hobby Lobby clock mechanism is roughly 3/8″ wide. I have that size drill bit, so i drilled and hollowed it out a bit:

Now get your epoxy/superglue and glue the clock mechanism face:

And put that on the back of the HDD:

Depending on which glue you chose, wait until it is completely dry. In the meantime, working on the clock hands would be a good idea. Put the read/write heads in the vice and stark hacking each individual head off:

With the two heads that will become the minute and hour hands separated from the rest of the read/write block, file one down until it is short and the size of an hour hand:

Use some super glue or epoxy to affix these to their respective parts in the Hobby Lobby clock kit. Depending on your tastes, you might want to snap off part of the hands and glue it directly to the base of the ring that connects the hands to the clock mechanism (That’s what I did).

Now start work on the second hand. Take a stranded copper wire, and wrap it around the second hand until it is completely covered – then snap off the excess at the other side of the base:

Do you remember some of the leftover parts you had when you took the platters off of the spindle? There should be 2 rings that just barely cover the edges of the platters. Glue two of them together to make one big one, this will keep the platter off of the hard drive case, and make it look better:

When that sets, glue that spindle to the HDD platter of your choice:

Glue that platter to the HDD case:

Now your clock hands should be dry enough to handle. Put those onto the mechanism
poking out through the hole in the middle:

Polish the surface up a bit, and add the second hand and a battery – and guess what? YOU’RE DONE! Congratulations, you have an awesome bit of geek hardware!