I need to make two hard drives unreadable. Unfortunately, I have some constraints which make this harder than usual (in particular, they rule out the answers to other questions):
- I don’t have a computer to mount the drives and erase them (weird, right?)
- I don’t have a strong magnet
- I don’t have the right tools (screwdrivers …) to properly dismantle the drives
- I don’t have access to corrosive chemicals
- I don’t have a sledgehammer.
How can I destroy the drives with the least monetary / material requirements?
The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is to pinch off the connection pins, and perhaps destroy the circuit board using a small hammer.
I realise that given all the above constraints this may be too much to ask. I’m willing to settle for whatever I can get. I don’t have to fulfil legal obligations of data security, and the data on the discs, though personal, is not critical. I don’t want to prevent the FBI from reading my discs, just the next door wannabe MacGyver.