[rescue] Re: nuking from orbit

[BSD Bob the old greybeard BSD freak]

> > I don't think that you can trust a single normal grenade to destroy a
> > computer thoroughly enough.
> 
> You've never actually _seen_ a grenade explode firsthand, have you?
> 
> I think it'd certainly fragment the disk platters.

Depends....  The fragmentation pattern follows something akin to the
inverse square law.  If the thing were right on the top of the drive,
probably OK.  If it were a few inches away, the fragments might miss
it entirely.

Perhaps a better way to clean off old drives would be to put a small
knife edge somewhat like a lathe bit on each head or on a separate
head actuator.  At the appropriate command action, the knife edges
would skate across the platters several times, grinding off the data.
Not even NSA could reassemble that Humpty Dumpty.

Probably not quite practical yet for government use.....

Bob