With all the critical media coverage of high-profile data losses in recent months (much of it here on PC Pro), it’s no wonder that people are thinking more and more about their own data security. It makes sense to be paranoid, to a certain extent, but it’s easy to go too far.

These guys decided that the only way to ensure their personal data stayed personal was to smelt down their hard disks into ingots of aluminium. You can’t fault their logic; it’s incredibly unlikely that anything could be recovered from the platters, but you have to wonder just what was on them to warrant all that effort.

Right now, my hard disk contains;

- A spreadsheet listing all my finances
- A PDF of last year’s tax return
- Private emails
- Bank statements
- Saved passwords to a lot of web services
- Potentially embarrassing pictures from that night in the pub last week

Despite this, I’ll be happy to give them a quick format or two and throw them in the bin when their time comes. You see, I just don’t think I’m interesting enough to pique the interest of any passing data recovery experts.

Of course, if you do have national security secrets, plans for a time machine, a cure for the common cold or something of that nature on a hard disk that you need to throw out, then you could always invest in a commercial product like the Hard Disk Crusher from EDR, which squashes disks into cubes like cars at a scrapyard.

However, hard disks can be more resistant to impacts than you may believe. Earlier this year a hard disk from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was found, and data recovery experts managed to save the results of an experiment which were previously thought to have been lost forever. If a drive can survive an explosion and a fall from tens of thousands of feet in the air, then who knows if it will survive a good crushing?

You could consider drafting in some outside help, from the friendly local train operator, for instance. These security-conscious computer users placed their hard disk on train tracks and waited for a freight train to take care of erasing data.

If you’re based in the US then you can always try shooting your hard disk – it seems to work very well with a .223 caliber sniper rifle, according to YouTube user tbonesixtynine. Of course, thanks to the UK’s slightly more stringent laws on gun ownership this isn’t an option open to most PC Pro readers.

Another plan would be to lend it to David Bayon, PC Pro peripherals editor, who can destroy hardware simply by picking it up and looking at it.