Old 3.5" Disks

[Мастер]

How to get rid of them? Not sure if any of them have sensitive information. I do have an old machine with a 3.5" drive, running a home-brew version of Linux. The drive might even work.

[Blue Monster 65]

Pry them apart and shred them?

[Мастер]

I'd be perfectly happy with that if it weren't so labor-intensive. Or is it not? Is there an easy way to get these things apart?

[Blue Monster 65]

Always seemed to pry apart with a screwdriver inserted or even a pair of needlenose pliers easily enough to me, but then again I like breaking things.

Shaddap, Enzo.

Yes, it can be a bit of trouble, I'm sure, but my shredder won't handle things that big, so I have to go that route when getting rid of those.

[MM_Dandy]

Recycle center? Sioux Falls has one that will accept computer-ish (fax machines, etc.) stuff as long as you're not a for-profit.

Edit: Oh, wait, I forgot: the recycling center wouldn't take any disks (other than HDs). Now, I'll just have to remember what I did with ours...

[wring]

Is the concern that you don't want some one to retrieve it and find out all the nefarious stuff you saved several years ago? Bending the little metal thing would make it not able to be inserted. But I would think that pouring something like paint on it would like, totally make it unreadable, even by McGyver.

[Мастер]

Is the concern that you don't want some one to retrieve it and find out all the nefarious stuff you saved several years ago?

Yes, paranoia. The reality is probably that nobody cares what I did several years ago.

[Мастер]

Always seemed to pry apart with a screwdriver inserted or even a pair of needlenose pliers easily enough to me, but then again I like breaking things.

84 of them destroyed by a method very similar to this one (no screwdriver used). A whole bunch were deemed not to be a threat, and just tossed in the trash. One remains stuck in the disk drive on the old computer. If I can extract that one, then this is a floppy disk-free household.

[Enzo]

A real low tech methiod would be to line them up and whack each hard with a hammer, enough to crimp the disc inside. Or use the hammer to pount a large nail through the meat of each one. Or drive a cheap screwdriver through each one to make a hole. ANything like that would keep them from spinning or reading if anyone tried to cram it in a drive.

Of course if you are worried about the CIA taking them apart and reconstructing the data...

SLide open the little cover and squirt superglue inside.


I imagine there would be some plan using cat urine that would disuade snoops.

[MM_Dandy]

Is the concern that you don't want some one to retrieve it and find out all the nefarious stuff you saved several years ago?

Yes, paranoia. The reality is probably that nobody cares what I did several years ago.

Ah! Well, then, in that case, 3.5" disks make for wonderful target practice.

Pull!!

[troubleagain]

Use a magnet to degauss them.

[Enzo]

Or gauss them...


Strew them on the floor at the local golf course clubhouse. As the golfers walk on them in their spiked shoes...

[Heid the Ba]

Tin snips through the case and disc, then into the trash at the bottom of a bag of used cat litter.

It may still be possible to reconstruct the data after that but anyone who could (and wanted to target me) would be able to find much easier ways to catch me up to something.

[Arneb]

This is starting to sound is if it belonged in Baba O'Reilly.

Slide the case open and give the pieco of disk sitting below a good BBQ with a Bunsen.

[KLA2]

They have 3 1/2 inch disks now?

I can replace my 5 1/4 inch sssd's?

What TA said, easiest way.

[Enzo]

I think I still have a box of 8" floppies up in the old office.

[KLA2]

In 1980, still an accounting student, I worked for a large corporation that used those.

They had a mainframe computer, but in the accounting department was a ... terminal? about the size of a desk that was used to enter data on those disks.

The data on the disks was then transferred via sneakernet to the mainframe operators.

I guess it was a big technological step up from punchcards.

I do recall that clerks were chastised for stapling notes to those disks, or using magnets to stick them to the sides of filing cabinets. True!

Some day I will tell you about their facsimilie machine, the first I ever saw.