Prior to that, he was the Founding Editor of Review Geek. Prior to his current role, Jason spent several years as Editor-in-Chief of LifeSavvy, How-To Geek's sister site focused on tips, tricks, and advice on everything from kitchen gadgets to home improvement. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the site to ensure readers have the most up-to-date information on everything from operating systems to gadgets. Jason Fitzpatrick is the Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. Basically, it’s no different than using sandpaper on the writable side, till the data is gone. So how can a disc exist, yet be destroyed? Well, the most common method is grinding the disc down to destroy the data, yet keep the label surface of the disc intact. If there is a security audit, the disc can be pulled to show it has been destroyed. And in some places, like DoD and other secure facilities, the data needs to be destroyed, but the disc needs to exist. So why not just pulverize the disc into dust? Or burn it to a crisp? While technically, that would completely eliminate the data, it leaves no record of the disc having existed. The disc can be reassembled and the data can be reconstructed - minus the data that was physically destroyed. If you have a microscope handy, put the disc in it and you can see the pits. It is technically possible to recover data from shredded/broken/etc CDs and DVDs. But oddly, that common phrase "Good enough for government work" does not apply - depending on which part of the government. The answer by Journeyman Geek is good enough for almost everything. The other options are better for the rest of us.Īnother contributor, Keltari, notes that the only safe (and DoD approved) way to dispose of data is total destruction: If I was an evil hacker mastermind, this is what I'd do. This results in a very much destroyed cd in every respect. There's a lot of videos of this on YouTube - such as this (who's done this in a kitchen. I would suggest doing this in a well ventilated area of course, and not using your mother's good microwave. There's also the fun, and probably dangerous way - find yourself an old microwave, and microwave them. Do it in a bag, cause this generates sparkly bits. You want to damage the data layer along with shearing along the plastic, and these work magnificently. Kitchen shears with one serrated side work well too. I don't do this very often - For small scale destruction I favour a pair of tin snips - they have enough force to cut through a cd, yet are blunt enough to cause small cracks along the sheer line. This is the right option if you end up doing this routinely. The proper way is to get yourself a shredder that also handles cds - look online for cd shredders. SuperUser contributor Journeyman Geek offers a practical solution coupled with a slightly mad-scientist solution:
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