How should I decommission my laptop?

[PerfectStorm]

Military grade? You mean like something that conforms to DOD 5220.22-M?

I'd prefer NSA (7 pass), or Gutmann (35 passes)

Proof that you can sell anything to the public sector

[CryingSheep]

The thing is with mansplaining love, is often the women in question doesn't know being talked at is in her interest as we know better than she does. So show a little gratitude and make me a sandwich

Is just me or you just mansplained mansplaining!?

Ahh and mine can be with cheese, no ham...

[clearedforlanding]

Totally this. A "failed disk" or one that won't spin up, or has an error in the MBR, or has been quick formatted - those are completely different to a drive that has been wiped and over-written.

Here's what CCleaner does for it's secure deletion:
CCleaner has four methods of secure deletion: a Simple Overwrite (1 pass), DOD 5220.22-M (3 passes), NSA (7 passes), and Gutmann (35 passes). A 'pass' refers to how many times CCleaner writes over the spot on the hard drive. The more times CCleaner writes to that spot, the harder the file will be to recover by any means. The drawback is that it will take CCleaner longer to complete the job.

Go all in.

[WTFH]

Go all in.

Yeah, a mate of my friend's cousin knows a guy he met down the pub one night who goes round every skip in the UK and found a hard drive in the Swindon recycling centre that had been wiped using that method, and he just picked up the drive and was able to read everything on it through his fingers. Turns out it contained the top secret design plans for indicators on BMWs.

Anyone who disagrees is spreading fake news.

[jamesbrown]

Another option would be to fill it with pictures of MF at the beach.

If they're that committed, they probably deserve your life savings.

[Mordac]

LM - ignore most of the above. Smash the disk to fooking kingdom come. Do what the fook you like with the rest of it. I suddenly don't care anymore.

I need a lie down. Is it beer'o'clock yet?

[NotAllThere]

LM - ignore most of the above. Smash the disk to fooking kingdom come. Do what the fook you like with the rest of it. I suddenly don't care anymore.

I need a lie down. Is it beer'o'clock yet?

What kind of contractor are you? It's always beer o' clock.

[Lance]

Sadly you are SO VERY WRONG. I make occasional good money retrieving data from failed disks which won't even spin-up any more. Any app which can reformat a disk so it can't be read will cost you more than it's worth to just remove and destroy the disk.

No. You are wrong.
Use a quality app to wipe the disk that uses encryption.

e.g.
Complete Data Removal, Data Erasure Software - Blancco

PGPwipe is another.
Or just Bitlocker encrypt the disk, then format it.

[Lance]

The original advice (to LM) was intended as being to someone who may or may not be conversant with the technology you are talking about. I was suggesting the easiest option. And backing it up with my experience of what could happen when people (even IT literate folk) think they know what they're doing, and get it even slightly wrong, don't want to experience the consequences.
I know what I'm doing, and I still wouldn't send a HDD out into the world if it held anything which could be retrieved, even if I was almost certain it couldn't. It takes 5 mins to remove a drive, and depending on the size, up to 24 hours to overwrite all sectors to the point where nothing can be retrieved. I'll take the 5 min option, all day, every day...

The client I work for has chosen the option of removing the disks from c. 1000 devices to destroy them, simply because it's quicker.
I just don't know whey they bought the NCSC approved wiping software though...

[Zigenare]

The client I work for has chosen the option of removing the disks from c. 1000 devices to destroy them, simply because it's quicker.
I just don't know whey they bought the NCSC approved wiping software though...

It ticked a box on the relevant form at a certain time.