A simple permanent magnet won't reliably erase them unless the magnet is ULTRA-strong. What you'll need is an AC powered bulk tape eraser (Radio Shack used to sell them years ago when Reel-2-Reel tapes were popular). It's just a 3 pound coil of wire that generates a strong 60 cycle magnetic field. A minute or so in that field and your magnetic disk is going to be pretty random. This works because the Zip plastic shield is transparent to the magnetic field. Won't work on disks in metal cases.
How Do I Destroy Old Zip Disks
Given that, the only reliable method of knowing the evidence is safely eradicated is to destroy the flash drive in such a way that no part of it can be recovered. The steps that follow walk through an approach to this process which delivers definite results.
Lots of people have floppy disks sitting around collecting dust without any idea what kind of information is on them. While it can be tempting to just throw them all away, it's safest to wipe any information off of them first. If you want to check what kind of information is on your floppy disks, you can buy a USB floppy disk drive. Then, you can either run a secure delete program or physically destroy the disks. Or, you can send your disks to a recycling service or repurpose them if you aren't concerned about the data.
Short answer - yes, all Zip disk (drives) are Mac compatible - except for the parallel ones, which were specific to the PC. The real question is... whether or not the Zip disks will be read by a machine capable of reading Mac-formatted zip disks! If you're going to plug the Zip drive into a modern Mac, USB is the easiest way to go - and will be able to mount Mac-formatted media.
Before you make an attempt to retrieve important files from old Zip disks, I would recommend to verify the condition of the drive by reading from another (not so important) disk. Some used Zip drives can damage disks, and you do not want this to happen.
A little more information would be helpful, starting with the machine used to create the files. There was a period in which Zip drives created the 'click of death.' Without being able to test the proposed Zip drive, you could well be buying a defective drive. While the chances are slim, they still exist and that chance could destroy your files, or at least, distroy easy access to them. You can always pay big bucks to have the files professionally transferred.
PS, original Zip disks came formatted 49 meg Mac, 49 meg PC so they would mount on either platform. If files were created on a PC, the Mac would read them. PCs would not always read the Mac files. If you are using a USB Drive and not moving from Mac to PC, you should only have to worry about testing a disk on the USB end before testing a disk created in a SCSI drive. The devil is in the details.
Free data-wiping program obliterates your dataIf you want to keep the drive usable but totally erased, use the free Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), which comes in a version that runs off floppy disks and USB flash drives and another that runs off a CD or a DVD. The program's interface won't win any awards, but DBAN has a solid reputation among security experts.
Attack the platter to render a hard-disk unreadableNo matter how thorough a data-wiping program is, the only way to be certain that a hard-drive's data is unrecoverable is by rendering the drive's platters unspinnable. I've heard and read all kinds of methods people use to destroy an old drive, some of which are downright dangerous.
Put it in a fire? There are lots of toxic chemicals in that gadget. Do you really want to be breathing them or otherwise releasing them into the environment? 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.
I crush CDs and DVDs with my bare hands or a paper shredder designed to have disks fed in. We contract a licensed and bonded document destruction company for paper shredding in general. The same company takes our old hard drive platters and crushes/shreds them as needed.
HDD are destroyed with a hydrolic press. Sometimes I just let guys in the shop take sledge hammers, blow torces, anything they want and go nuts on these things. Then we run them through a press for good measure.
In the past I have used the 'oven method' for destroying CD's and DVD's. They do make a good ash tray if you are a smoker. Just make a mould and watch them for a bit at 350. I work for an electronic recycler here in Canada and now I bring HDD here to be DBANed and crushed (use the corp version of DBAN, EBAN). Still a good utility. CD's I bring to work and get them put through the chain shredder, which does a nice job of destructification.
I use my offsite tape storage service provider (onesafeplace.com) to take possesion of the items and have them destroy the items. Once completed I receive a legally binding document that states that the product has been destroyed.
Most of these replies have a common theme - manually destroying the media (whatever form) yourself. My biggest suggestion would be to consider if later down the road you'll need proof the media was destroyed.
However, if you think that some day someone will ask you for proof that the data/media was destroyed, you're going to want to go the "professional services" route. Get someone who'll provide a certificate saying the data was destroyed.
im pretty sad (safe?) when it comes to destroying media.. hard drives typically will be given a couple of rounds with dban - then drilled. I usually then think one more step is required so i dismantle the disk and destroy the actual internal disk into as may peices as possible then dispose of the peices in multiple bins usually not in the same area.
I would just break up the cd's and the zip disks. As for the tapes you can either smash them up or break them up also. You also could send them all to a licensed and bonded recycler for destroying. That is what we did at place I worked. We used them for all our confidential documents also.
I had a client with this exact same problem. Luckily, we had access to a Zip drive with USB. It worked fine connected to my MacBook Pro running High Sierra, and I was able to pull the data off all the Zip disks in an afternoon.
I do know we did finally destroy my old washing machine size Data General hard drive platter system, I never owned the drive for it (it really was th size of a washing machine) but kept one of the disks for nostalgic reasons. If I recall it was a whopping 5MB in size! I also know we got rid of the 8 inch, 5.25 inch and 3.5 inch floppy drives because the rotating servos wore out.
Secure media destruction services are the safest and most effective way to destroy a wide range of digital and electronic media including CD destruction and floppy disk disposal. Locked containers and even magnetic erasing are not enough to ensure your confidential information will stay out of the wrong hands. Only physical destruction is 100% effective.
Green Disk will accept diskettes, zip disks, CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs et al, video tape, audio tape, game cartridges, DAT, DLT, and virtually all other type of computer tapes. We do not accept any of these types of materials at the HHW Center. If you have a large amount of these materials you wish to recycle please work directly through Green Disk for proper disposal.
Our vendors shred data storage devices or they are are wiped, using a HIPAA,FERPA, DOD and /nist 800-88 approved process and equipment. Residents are welcome to drill a hole or destroy the hard drive before turning it in to our program if they wish.
Electronic media is defined as any electronically generated storage device that is used to record information, including but not limited to hard disks/hard drives, magnetic tapes, compact discs, videotapes, audiotapes, and removable storage such as floppy and zip disks.
Because your floppy disks are likely to contain data, you need to wipe them before you simply dispose of them by throwing them away, or sending them to an IT recycling centre. Just as if you were disposing of an old hard drive, you need to wipe it first, to ensure data security.
If you fail to be inspired by these crafty suggestions, you can use your floppy disks to create art for your office, as one artist did who was featured in the news for using old floppy disks to create original, mural wall art.
Southern California Shredding accepts the following for hard drive and media destruction. Once we have certified that the items and the data they once held have been destroyed, we sort and appropriately recycle all shredded materials as part of our commitment to running an earth-friendly business. 2ff7e9595c
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