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Hard Drive Bomb Detonation #1

In conjunction with the Graffiti Research Lab I’m hunting for a foolproof way to secure my data, and yesterday was the first attempt — gunpowder charge inside the hard disk.


Conclusion? Unsuccessful. The hard drive’s platters were damaged but not shattered. Data still recoverable.

For further research see the HDD Detonator project page. Explosives, chemicals, electrical, magnetic — in the name of security all is fair game.

Comment on this

  1. that’s a helluva job! i was hoping for scraps, and other small pieces to fly around. perhaps you could load more small pieces inside next time so that when it explodes, the small pieces whir around inside and shred whatever is in its way. hope this tip helps. all in the name of security….

    — jaki Levy · Jun 21, 11:16 PM · #

  2. bro you need a much larger explosion I’ll be up in a week and a half grab a computer for me to blow up I’ll bring something to make a large boom and it will do the job!

    — Patrick Michaels · Jun 21, 11:50 PM · #

  3. If you disassemble the Hard Drive and remove the platters.
    You can then use a bulk tape eraser to wipe the data clean.
    Totally non-recoverable!!

    — nimble2 · Jun 21, 11:57 PM · #

  4. Ha. Nice work. You could make a crazy series out of this! (next up, acid bath)

    — sahadeva · Jun 22, 12:24 AM · #

  5. haha awesome!

    I like saha’s acid bath idea. Would be pretty cool to see a powermac get eaten up from the inside out.

    — Amit Gupta · Jun 22, 04:55 PM · #

  6. NEED THERMITE!!!

    — JW · Jul 19, 06:17 PM · #

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