Hard Drive O' Truth. Anyone try it?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Hard Drive O' Truth. Anyone try it?

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:02:25 AM EDT

I have about a dozen computer hard drives my companies IT department gave me to "dispose" of. They have been cleaned of data, and have functionality problems, but the IT guys still want them destroyed. I am happy to oblige. I have ripped apart about 30 of them so far for the magnets inside which are strong as heck. But I have a dozen or so left fully intact and I was thinking about shooting them for fun.

Has anyone here done it? What caliber? Results?

I'm thinking 22lr will dent and crack but not really do much. I am pretty confident that 5.56 will punch right though. It is just aluminum with some very soft steel components..

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:06:27 AM EDT

[#1]

do a penetration test to see how many hd's can be penetrated with various calibers.

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:07:14 AM EDT

[#2]

A HDD will stop 9mm, .40, and .45 ball ammo. At least thats been my experience. Rifle rounds pass through with ease.

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:39:56 AM EDT

[#3]

depends where they hit.

iv'e had .45 and .9mm stop, but .22 go through. Depends on the type, and location of hit.

There's a youtube video....50 BMG AP..penetrated 18 hard drives.

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:41:03 AM EDT

[#4]

Those magnets are great for hanging guns from the undersides of desks, cabinets, etc..

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:41:25 AM EDT

[#5]

yup, I did long time ago with some 30.06 AP. I'll try to find the pics

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:44:25 AM EDT

[#6]

I have shot a few hard drives. If you hit it on the spindle, you are hitting the toughest part. The platters are next toughest, though some drives only have a couple. There is a part where the head arm attaches and it will stop a few smaller rounds. I used 9mm, .40 and 5.7mm. The platters did not stop 5.7, but I cannot remember if it had 4. I can check when I get home. The spindle part stopped all the rounds that hit it. I didn't hit it with any rifle rounds. I think one of the guy shot one with a .22 and it did a fair amount of damage to the chassis but the steel/stainless? cover didn't let them penetrate.

Shootin' hard drives is fun!

ByteTheBullet (-:

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:47:50 AM EDT

[#7]

well, can't find the one where I ran the AP, but here is another. No idea why I have so many hard drives

http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=813330

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:48:00 AM EDT

[#8]

its been done... 18 hard drives will stop a .50 BMG API.

Video

http://www.hardocp.com/news/2009/03/21/50_bmg_api_vs_18_hard_drives

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:49:27 AM EDT

[#9]

The magnets are useful.

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:52:07 AM EDT

[#10]

I have shot dozens. Most pistols will not penetrate. .223 and .308 go right through.

Posted: 11/5/2009 11:58:20 AM EDT

[#11]

.357 does a nice number on them.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:03:14 PM EDT

[#12]

From my experiences .22lr will just dent the shit out of a hard drive. I've had 9mm, 40, and 45 pass through without any problems. That is of course if you don't hit the spindle. My friend has a hard drive with a 45 round embedded dead center in the top of the spindle.

Oh, I've also had a .308 penetrate 4/5 hard drives we lined up. Always fun to take some old hard drives to the range.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:05:45 PM EDT

[#13]

the platters are really reflective. I have one as a signal mirror in my bob

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:14:23 PM EDT

[#14]

45 ball will not penetrate a maxtor 250gb but it will dent the fuck out of the drive

that particular drive will be eating a large amount of 308s in the near future

for reference don't go cheap when your building a storage array

:(

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:15:26 PM EDT

[#15]

You can skip 12ga slugs off of them with a high incident angle.
I also managed to dent,but not penetrate, a CPU heatsink with a slug.

Shoot at the HD platter when installed in a PC bay,and the friction will eventually set the tower on fire.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:24:14 PM EDT

[#16]

.50AE goes right through and leaves a big hole.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:29:04 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
I have about a dozen computer hard drives my companies IT department gave me to "dispose" of. They have been cleaned of data, and have functionality problems, but the IT guys still want them destroyed. I am happy to oblige. I have ripped apart about 30 of them so far for the magnets inside which are strong as heck. But I have a dozen or so left fully intact and I was thinking about shooting them for fun.

Has anyone here done it? What caliber? Results?

I'm thinking 22lr will dent and crack but not really do much. I am pretty confident that 5.56 will punch right though. It is just aluminum with some very soft steel components..

I shot the metal side of a hard drive with WWB 45acp last month; it dented the hell out of it but did not penetrate. I shot the other side that had a circuit board and plastic case material, it penetrated through four of the five "disks" in the hard drive. Sorry no pics.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:30:45 PM EDT

[#18]

I hit one with a .308 soft-point once. There is no way anyone could have retrieved data from the remains.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:40:17 PM EDT

[#19]

i can vouch that .45 will eat them up, a hard drive will not stop it

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:46:35 PM EDT

[#20]

.22LR will go through the thin metal case, penetrate a platter or two, but isn't going to make it out the back most of the time.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:50:42 PM EDT

[#21]

FYI, a good forensic unit can still get the data off of the pieces.

Expensive? Yes, but very do-able.

Posted: 11/5/2009 12:51:50 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
FYI, a good forensic unit can still get the data off of the pieces.

Expensive? Yes, but very do-able.

Yes.

As long as the piece is smaller than a sector, advanced techniques can retrieve the data, but they'd have to really REALLY want it.

Posted: 11/5/2009 1:04:36 PM EDT

[#23]

My 60,000 PSI WaterJet made quick work of a hard drive

I hope the video works. Posting Photobucket vids on Arfcom used to be impossible because it would stick a random character in the link.

Vid

Posted: 11/5/2009 1:21:00 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
My 60,000 PSI WaterJet made quick work of a hard drive

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc257/david448/temp/100_1590.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc257/david448/temp/100_1592.jpg

I hope the video works. Posting Photobucket vids on Arfcom used to be impossible because it would stick a random character in the link.

Vid

Posted: 11/5/2009 2:29:15 PM EDT

[#25]

I have a couple old drives that I've been planning to shoot. I was going to use .223 but this has inspired me to see how they'll handle some 1480 fps 38 Supers I have.

Posted: 11/5/2009 2:33:18 PM EDT

[#26]

Shot a 5.25" hard drive (one of those BigFoot drives) with a .30-06 at 100 yards.

Went through like a hot knife through butter.

Posted: 11/5/2009 2:33:48 PM EDT

[#27]

Black one was .30-06, if I recall correctly.

Posted: 11/5/2009 2:35:28 PM EDT

[#28]

The newer ceramic discs won't stop anything.

The old metal discs will stop WWB 9mm & 40S&W.

5.56 goes right through.

Posted: 11/5/2009 2:45:50 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
The newer ceramic discs won't stop anything.

The old metal discs will stop WWB 9mm & 40S&W.

5.56 goes right through.

Ain't that the truth. One of those startled me as I went to bend it thinking it was metal and it exploded in my hands. I am still finding small pieces of it on my desk months later.