liquid nitrogen bath + sledgehammer....
but more practically just a couple of whacks with a hammer is all it will take. And then if you want to be extra sure, a nice caustic bath in a bucket--dissolve some Red Devil Lye in a big plastic bucket, add HDD's and let them soak for a hour or two. Carefully pour out the solution and then rinse them off before you pick them up.

see normally I would just scratch the crap out of them and be done with it but the home-made explosives are starting to sound fun ... also I found this while I was waiting for a few responses. http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/.....otorcycle/

I found the following site looking online a little while ago: http://www.amherst.edu/~note/h.....index.html
It lists a few ways to destroy drives and videos of them doing so too.

No need for TNT. What you've got in the house/garage/garden shed should do it

Loads of liquid nitrogen in California

throw of high building to concrete or other hard surface

that would be kinda funny

SO how did you end up destroying the drive platters?
If you haven't taken car of them yet, you could try getting a friend with a front wheel drive car, put the platters in front of the rear tires, roll the car onto them, pull up the handbrake and sink the right foot into the carpet. Not only is that method effective, but it is loads of fun.

Thorn

P.S. Don't do a burnout on the platters, we did manage to destroy the data on them, but I owed a guy a new radiator timing belt. :-(

They are almost too small. We done it with a Toyota Corolla with very narrow tires.
And yeah, McDonalds trays was where I got the idea from. I'm going to find a roadwork site and ask them to do what WHS suggested. Maybe when my kids have grown up we can drive past it and I can say "I put that there 25 years ago" lol

ThornyCrown

You could microwave them. Far from your house, of course.