Question Old HDD Question

[Mkurucar]

I recently rebuild my entire system except my old HDD, power supply, and gpu. I put a new 1 tb ssd in to replace my old 250 gb ssd that I had and needless to say space is no longer an issue. So my question is, can i simply unplug and remove my old HDD or do I need to un-partition it or whatever before i get rid of it? Thanks!

 

[Ralston18]

You should be able to simply unplug and remove the old HDD.

However, start by just unplugging it and going through a few boot cycles over two or three days to ensure that somehow, someway, that there will not be any software looking for the HDD.

Then physically remove the HDD. Again keep it handy and protected - just in case.

When you are sure that the HDD is no longer needed or wanted you can get rid of it.

The biggest concern is that there may be personal data on the drive that you do not want someone else to gain access to.

Some people will just reformat the HDD and then smash it with a sledge hammer. Then toss the carcass into a metal recycling bin.

Another option would be to use DBAN to wipe the HDD and then physically take it apart. The internal magnet is very powerful and can be quite useful accordingly. The platters are bright and shiny. Kids like them - creative options galore...

Either way only someone really desperate to get their hands on your data would make an effort to get the data off of the HDD's remains.