[Gllug] [O/T] Disposing of old zip disks

[James Courtier-Dutton]

2009/8/14 John G Walker <johngeoffreywalker at yahoo.co.uk>:
> I have a box full of used zip disks, which have, as you might guess,
> not been used for some years. Most of what is on them is trivial stuff
> (eg early drafts of my PHD thesis and the like), but I can't guarantee
> there isn't some confidentail information on some of them which I ought
> not to let into the public domain (which in this case means the local
> skip).
>
> I no longer have access to any means of writing to them, so reformatting
> is not an option. Has anyone any other suggestions for disposing of the
> disks than taking a hammer to them? There's only a few dozen, so I'm
> not sure any of the data disposal companies would be interested without
> me paying an exorbitant price,
>

It depends how certain you want to destroy  them.
As you don't have the standard tools, e.g. degausser, shredder and
incinerator, you will have to make do with you own versions.
You will have to skip the degausser.
Open up each zip disk (i.e. Remove the hard plastic cover)
Inside you will find a flimsy disc.
Use scissors to cut up the disc into nice small pieces. (the manual
shredder step)
Then, place the bits in a fire and heat them so that either they burn,
or at least melt into a gooy lump. This step is likely to output
horrible smelling fumes, so doing it in your kitchen oven is probably
not a great idea. As you only have a few discs, it is ok to do
outside. If you had a lot more, it would be very unsociable to your
neighbors, and possibly illegal.
You have finished. It is not easy to recover the data after this process!!!

Another alternative is to simply borrow a ZIP drive from someone, and
reformat the discs a few times. Although not a total destruction, it
is not easy to recover the data.
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