By Andrew Liszewski
I will admit that even though I never store any sensitive data on DVD or CDs I still feel the need to scratch them up ‘real good like’ and make them as unreadable as possible before I throw them in the trash.
Plextor already includes a neat application for easily destroying discs with every burner they sell. The utility is called PlexEraser and it makes a CD or DVD unreadable by re-recording over the lead-in and data sectors of a write-once disc rendering all the data unusable. And while I can’t find much information about it online it seems Plextor will be soon shipping a standalone CD/DVD eraser that will destroy a disc in about six minutes presumably using the same technique as their software utility does.
VIA [Akihabara News]
What’s wrong with cutting the disc in half with scissors? Takes a lot less time than 6 minutes.
I have always enjoyed putting them in the microwave. The disk is unreadable … and you get a show!
Seems like Plextor is loosing their edge and coming up moronic product.. Pretty soon may start seeing lame MP3 players as if the world doesn’t have enough of those. I hope not, cause I’ve always repected plextor for their quality products.
It depends on how irrecoverable you want the destroyed data to be.
Theres also too much false rumour about how to destroy the data properly.
The data isnt stored in the silver layer so making sure that has rubbed off isnt going to ensure the data cant be recovered. The silver layer can be replaced.
The carbonate layer must be destroyed to prevent data recovery.
A cut up disk will damage some of the data. If the original can be reconstructed enough to determine what it was, that may be enough.
If the data is movies or photos, enough may be reconstructed to see what they are or to retrieve parts of an image that are useful.
It depends what your own needs are.
The Plextor drive may be very useful to some people as you are pretty much assured the data cannot be recovered.
It does this without hurting the environment too.
I prefer the microwave option. Not only does it thoroughly destroy the disc, it also provides a beautiful arc show!