Saturday, 22 December 2018

security - How to destroy a CD/DVD rom safely?



I have old CDs/DVDs which have some backups, these backups have some work and personal files. I always had problems when I needed to physically destroy them to make sure no one will reuse them.


Breaking them is dangerous, pieces could fly fast and may cause harm. Scratching them badly is what I always do but it takes long time and I managed to read some of the data in the scratched CDs/DVDs.


What's the way to physically destroy a CD/DVD safely?



Answer



The proper way is to get yourself a shredder that also handles cds - look online for cd shredders. This is the right option if you end up doing this routinely.


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. Kitchen shears with one serrated side work well too. You want to damage the data layer along with shearing along the plastic, and these work magnificently. Do it in a bag, cause this generates sparkly bits.


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There's also the fun, and probably dangerous way - find yourself an old microwave, and microwave them. I would suggest doing this in a well ventilated area of course, and not using your mother's good microwave. There's a lot of videos of this on YouTube - such as this (who's done this in a kitchen... and using his mom's microwave). This results in a very much destroyed cd in every respect. If I was an evil hacker mastermind, this is what I'd do. The other options are better for the rest of us.


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