What happens if you put a hard drive in water?

When a hard drive gets wet, the water could potentially cause a short circuit, especially if it dries on the platters. But water alone will not destroy a hard drive or delete its data. While water can damage a hard drive’s electronics, the data itself is stored magnetically.

Does soaking hard drive destroy it?

Microwaves are handy for destroying CDs and DVDs, but you’d have to cook a hard drive for a long, long time to blister the drive’s platters. Several Web sites suggest soaking the drive in diluted hydrochloric or muriatic acid. This might work, but you run the risk of burning yourself or breathing toxic fumes.

How do I render a useless hard drive?

What is the Best Way to Destroy a Hard Drive?

1. Shred it. Whilst possibly the most effective way to destroy a hard drive is to shred it into a zillion pieces, there are not many of us who have an industrial shredder at our disposal at any given time.
2. Bash it with a Hammer.
3. Burn It.
4. Bend it or Crush It.
5. Melt/Dissolve it.

Will soaking a hard drive in salt water destroy it?

1 Answer. Salt water doesn’t destroy the data on the platters. It gradually degrades the quality of the actual storage layer on the platter, but that goes very slowly (think weeks).

Does smashing a hard drive work?

There are many more creative ways that you can destroy your hard drive such as setting it on fire, cutting it up with a saw or magnetizing it. However, simply scratching the hard drive disk and smashing it a bit with a hammer will get the job done!

Can you get files off a dead hard drive?

Use a LiveCD or LiveUSB and an External Hard Drive Use the LiveUSB to boot the computer with the dead drive. It will boot into the operating system on your LiveUSB instead of your computer’s operating system. If you can find your files, you should be able to copy them to your external hard drive.