Hammer is what I use.  That, and a drill.

My tech team manages all of that.

In any event, I would never take anything to Best Buy for destruction or tech support. 

Joan Cox - I do know how. However, I know retired Veterans who take out the hard drive for me, and I let them keep the rest. You can't imagine how grateful Veterans are to receive old computers and technology we discard. 

Yes I do as I had to remove a couple of them, from my laptop and desk top computers. I also have an old very old iPad that will have the hard drive removed.

when I lived in Florida I had a tech guy who would remove the hard drive and could reuse the rest. Here in Chicago I removed a hard drive and went Rambo on it. Although it was kind of fun I prefer using a tech guy.  

Open up the back of your laptop?

DANGER!, DANGER! Will Robinson!

Joan Cox axe, hammers, drills, nails and screws come on handy once in a while.🔥

You do live an interesting life. 

 Yes.

  Best Buy?   No, thank you.  (Yes, I shop there, yes I have a BB Credit Card, yes I use their support - sometimes - but I wouldn't trust them to dispose of confidential data).

   Back it up.   Perhaps a Seagate external drive or similar (Murphy's Law = the data you delete from your drive is the data you will need later).

 Take your old hard drive to your back yard, slam it several times with a pick axe.   Then bury it somewhere.

I can practically see myself starring in a sitcom called CSI: Hard Drive Edition.

Here’s the scene:  

Me, armed with a YouTube tutorial and a screwdriver that looks suspiciously like it came from an IKEA furniture kit, squinting at my laptop like it’s a bomb in an action movie. The hard drive is the villain—small, rectangular, smug—whispering, “You’ll never take me alive.” And then… victory! I yank it out, sweaty but triumphant, like Indiana Jones swapping the idol for a bag of sand.

Meanwhile, in the corner of the room, three much older computers sit like grumpy retirees at a nursing home, waiting for their final field trip to the destruction heap. They gossip among themselves:

•  “Remember when we had floppy disks? Those were the days.”

•  “Best Buy? Pfft. I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory at Geek Squad.”

•  “We’re basically paperweights now, but at least we’re vintage.”

And, knowing exactly what a hard drive looks like but lacking the mystical tools of removal, I sigh dramatically. It’s the sigh of a hero who has fought bravely but must wait for reinforcements. Those computers will sit there until the day the removal tools arrive, like medieval prisoners awaiting the guillotine.

Honestly, the whole thing feels like a Shakespearean tragedy written by Monty Python: “Alas, poor hard drive! I knew him, Horatio. He stored my cat photos well.”

So yes—I know what a hard drive looks like. I’ve seen its cold, metallic face. I’ve wrestled one free. And now I preside over a small army of ancient machines, awaiting their ceremonial destruction. Sigh… but also applause 👏.

Mine looks like this.  But I won't be removing it myself. I know better-er than that.

Yup, I knew Joan Cox as I have upgraded several times and now when I do I replace the old with solid state drives which look totally different.

Yes, I have removed every hard drive from every PC and laptop I've had in the last 25 years and it came in handy a time or two to keep them! 

Yes, I learned your lesson when I took mine in & they opened it up & did surgery. I saw it all & agree with your "whew" Joan Cox 

Yes... but I've never taken out my own. My computer guy who's maintained and installed my computers for over 20 years takes them out and replaces them and destroys them for me.

Yes I do, however I have never disposed of a laptop, they just get passed down to others in the company until they eventually get shoved in a closet to become antiques.

Yes.  They've changed a lot over the years.  Theres also software you can run to accomplish the same task, but I prefer to use the software and then take a drill press to the older style drives and physically shatter the platters.  The new ones look like memory chips and can be broken with a hammer.

I have done that in the past. Jumped up and down on the hard drive and then threw the mess into the garbage bin.

Well I know it needs to be destroyed before we turn anything over to another party.  How, I have no idea but that's why I have Mr Banana!

Yes, once you transfer data from your old drive to a new drive, you must take the old drive and destroy it

Wow, interesting learning what you got from this class Joan.

We trust the people we have destroy them.