Removing a hard drive
 

Here's one for the spanner wielders.

After sorting out Windows Games I want to dispose of my old computer which involves removing and destroying the hard drive. I searched the internet but I cannot see my model of Dell.

It a standard PC 100mm. high and 390 mm. wide, designed to lie flat but is OK vertical. A clip on the top releases a top/side plate and the DVD and the central memory cards reader can be slid out on short rails by releasing them with a catch.

Then you come to the hard drive.

Is had a blue plastic surround which looks as if you can just squeeze a couple of tags and it will come out but I cannot work out how.

Do I have to dismantle the whole thing so I can get at it from the other side or is there a simple way of removing it?

The internet has stacks of instructions but none of them cover this model.

I know I could destroy the case getting it out but I am trying to avoid lacerating my fingers.

Would posting a picture here help?

Here's a couple that might help.

The first is a quarter view with the card reader and DVD removed. The blue frame for the hard drive can be seen at the left of the aperture.

The second is looking at the inside with the hard drive at the top left. The blue surround can be seen.



Any ideas? I would be grateful as the rest of the kit seems to extract fairly easily.

Okay, it's an I.Q. test and the prize is $64,000.

Now it'll come out.:}


You've done it now, you've made me want to have a go getting it out.

The lug on a stalk at the top. It looks like a release trigger - but you will have tried that.

can you see if the HD is screwed into the blue cradle? That's sort of saying will the entire cradle pull out from the front - many of the new ones seem to do that now.

If the PC is to be destroyed, surely the niceties of how to remove the HD are largely irrelevant?

A blowtorch could be used to heat the drive up enough to wipe its residual magnetism and destroy the data. Either in or out of the case.

This looks like the manual for your PC (Optiplex 755 according to your photo).

There's a section in there on how to remove the HDD, which I commend to your attention.

SD

Dell: blue or green plastic means that component is a tool-free removal. So in your case, squeeze the blue tabs together and the drive should pop out (but still attached by the cables).

I have a fully serviceable 12bore shot gun, this will obviate the necessity for any special tools or instructions.

There's an amnesty on at the mo, PB! :ok:

Shooting a hard drive in suburbia makes too much noise, better a good bashing with a axe... :)

Giving the HDD a good belt with a hammer/mallet usually does the trick. Blunt, messy but effective.

Or drill a few holes through it.

subject
 

Two or three taps with an arc welder will work wonders!

Thanks SD That is a useful site because it covers the replacement as well. It took quite a lot of force to release the clips; I wouldn't have tried it unless I knew it was coming out.

There's nothing wrong with the old computer except the rootkit virus in the hard drive. I will keep the chassis, you never know when you might need one.

Would a low level format clean ALL the drive?

I will try that. I have got an erase, reformat and partition disc. One day I'll give it a go.

Yes, as long as the PSU is up to it. Dell (and HP / Compaq) tend to have unique fit components that makes it difficult to replace or upgrade - that goes particularly for motherboards and PSUs.

My current PC case (Cooler Master mid-tower) is almost 11 years old now - it's on its 3rd mobo, processor and GPU, 2nd PSU, now with SATA SSDs & DVD writers - in fact the case and sound card are the only things that are from my original build. The 3.5" floppy drive finally got replaced with a 2 x USB 3.0 front panel to access the USB ports on the mobo.

I find that incremental upgrades are the best way for me to keep reasonably up to date hardware-wise.

SD

The hard drive has 160gb so I may well clean it and load it with an old W98 disc I have. This will not take up a lot of room so I can transfer about 60 years of photos and films taking care to copy sections to discs.

I have the kit to transfer and all of it is old enough to work with W98.

I'm not worried about security; it will be a storage only so will not be connected to the internet by Ethernet or wireless..

The purist may well suggest an external hard drive but being connected to a computer it could pick up another virus.

Erm, it's a lot of work shoving masses of pics over to a small drive - especially one that's got a big ? hanging over it.

I'm still not sure about using a NAS drive direct in a PC enclosure. I was going to use a WD Red as a dedicated second physical drive as it ticks over at a modest RPM - the emphasis being on reliability. 3 year guarantee etc.

Perhaps SD would like to comment.

Hmm . . . not as cheap as the last one I got (but didn't use).

WD Red 1TB 3.5" SATA NAS Hard Drive - Ebuyer

Format the disc and then install "Open Media Vault" or one of the other Linux NAS distributions. You can download OMV from Distrowatch; it is based on Debian so should be stable.

I tried my Killdisk programme disc but it didn't work as it was a freebe download for one use only; which I have used.

To save the hassle I bought a used 250 Gb off fleaby for a fiver which had been cleaned.

I reloaded it with a W7 disc I had, tried to authenticate it but it was out of date so it is back to a photo storage unit and little else.

I have two others for the internet so there seems little point in bothering it with anything else.

I dismantled the old hard drive and scorched the disc on the gas hob. A laser follower would have trouble getting over the blisters.

Thanks to everybody for the help and comments.