Our old all-in-one PC (upgraded to W10) kept hanging, so we bit the bullet and replaced it with a Dell, which is whizzing along nicely 

We don't just want to dump the old one at the tip, being conscious that there's possibly still stuff on the hard disc (though I've overwritten whatever I could find).

I can't see how to break open the case to get the HD out. Any advice, please, on what to do with the HD to make it secure?

Thanks, and apologies for the laymanspeak.

sledgehammer 

Similar to @class37025 , but with a twist...

...claw hammer.

Easier to wield, claw helps get into the case, and once in, give the hard drive a good work over with the claws.


Oh yes, in case you're wondering, no, I'm NOT joking.

Once I've got an old/dead HD out of the machine I take the HD drive apart.
Over the years I've acquired a handy collection of round mirrors for seeing awkwardly located things - and an eclectic collection of very odd-shaped fridge magnets 

Yes, smash the discs up with the largest lumphammer you can get hold of.   

I had to do eight of the things out of one system once.

another vote for the big hammer 

I only bin a hard disc when it's broke, otherwise I remove from the old PC and either install as an additional disc in the new PC, or mount it in an external drive case. You can use it as additional storage or as a back up.

To open a PC undo screws on the back to remove the side plates

For my money, I tend to use a drill with a nice HSS bit, three or four holes through the case and the plattens and your done

If you don't want to physically destroy the HDD and can remove it, install it in your current machine as a secondary drive, open a command prompt and run:-

format d: /fs:NTFS /p:1 where "d" is the name windows has assigned to the secondary drive. This basically overwrites every sector of the HDD with zeros.

It's an urban myth that you need to overwrite a squillion times, once does it, as long as it's done properly.

If you're going to dump it, hammer. Don't believe the internet trolls that tell you that the FBI and Interpol will piece it all together and then arrest you for being part of the vast worldwide n-gauge conspiracy. They've already taken brain scans when you're using your phone, so they've got all they need on you anyway

Seriously, a hammer. I've done it myself a couple of times, and it's very cathartic if it was the drive that went bad on you.

Then you might like to take the computer and what's left of the hard drive to a recycling place that takes electronics and dead batteries rather than just dump it though, there's some toxic stuff in there that's not good for what's left of the planet.

Quote from: LASteve on August 18, 2020, 09:43:53 PM
Then you might like to take the computer and what's left of the hard drive to a recycling place that takes electronics and dead batteries rather than just dump it though, there's some toxic stuff in there that's not good for what's left of the planet.

Plus useful stuff that can be recovered to save digging up more.

Quote from: LASteve on August 18, 2020, 09:43:53 PM
If you're going to dump it, hammer. Don't believe the internet trolls that tell you that the FBI and Interpol will piece it all together and then arrest you for being part of the vast worldwide n-gauge conspiracy. They've already taken brain scans when you're using your phone, so they've got all they need on you anyway

Seriously, a hammer. I've done it myself a couple of times, and it's very cathartic if it was the drive that went bad on you.

Then you might like to take the computer and what's left of the hard drive to a recycling place that takes electronics and dead batteries rather than just dump it though, there's some toxic stuff in there that's not good for what's left of the planet.

Wot 'e said.

Reduce - reuse - recycle.

Sorry, omitted a step...

Reduce - reuse - beat the crap out of - recycle.

couple of pounds of nitro glycerine should sort it,much less effort than hammering. Or boot from a linux live disc and run the dd command,you could then install a lightweight linux distro and use it as a second machine

There isn't actually a lot you can do without access. I keep them in the basement for some years when they become inaccessible and then chuck them.

If you can access the drive use a hard disk tool of some kind (I don't know what WIndows offers for this) that issues the secure erase commands. That's the only documented safe way to erase a drive. Overwriting files may or may not work because the disks don't necessarily use the same bit of disk when you overwrite as it did for the original. The secure erase commands actually tell the drive to do a full erase and were added precisely to deal with disposal/recycling for re-use.

The reality though is that without some specialist knowledge and/or effort smashing the circuit board on it is probably enough. Someone is not going to go around all the disks at the tip fitting new circuit boards just in case - not unless you've upset a government or the illuminati

Jesus.

What are you lot trying to hide?