Quote from: hatshepsut93 on March 29, 2024, 11:34:45 PM

This thread sparked a question in my head. Imagine that you are in a situation where you need to dispose of you wallet seed backup, but it is etched on a steel plate - how would you do it? The easiest answer is likely acid, but not everyone has access to it, and depending on the steel plate, it might be even highly resistant to corrosion. Another option is to damage it mechanically - in many of these steel plate products you are supposed to etch the words, so it should be possible to erase them or render unrecognizable. But it's likely hard to do thoroughly and traces of the words could remain.

Any more ideas?

Mechanically destroying the hard drive seems to be the most optimal option to ensure data cannot be recovered. Using acid is potentially dangerous and requires highly specialized knowledge to avoid accidents. In terms of efficiency, thermal fusing is not always recommended, while mechanization can be time consuming but just as effective.

But I think that everyone should equip themselves with a method to safely destroy hard drives to ensure that sensitive data is not stolen. This can take time, especially when you need to process large amounts of data, but the security of your information is a top priority.