The first point to be made here is that scratched hard drives are still recoverable. Not fully, but still recoverable. Typically, the sectors that have been impaired by the scratch and the only sectors that the head stack assembly will not be able to read.
Does scratching a hard drive destroy it?
There are many more creative ways that you can destroy your hard drive such as setting it on fire, cutting it up with a saw or magnetizing it. However, simply scratching the hard drive disk and smashing it a bit with a hammer will get the job done!
How do you physically destroy a hard drive?
- BEFORE YOU BEGIN.
- STEP 1: Remove the hard drive from your computer.
- STEP 2: Access the hard drive's platters and circuit board.
- STEP 3: Remove the read/write arm, and scratch the platters with a screwdriver to destroy data.
- STEP 4: Break the circuit board.
- STEP 5: Recycle the computer's components.
