Easiest and safest way to make cd unreadable?

**Master Razor** · 21.01.17, 18:00

I have some CDs and DVDs that need to be thrown away. They contain sensitive data about myself and must not be recovered. Now, i've read many articles and tips, scissors, microwave, break them in half, melt, burn... but they are somewhat dangerous and/or tedious to do for many CDs. I'm lookig an easy and safe way to make them unreadable. What I would prefer is to scratch them using a cutter, a small cut at a precise location and would kill it. But that does not work very well as some files are still recoverable.

Any thoughts?

Thank you

**slikrapid** · 21.01.17, 19:47

breaking them seems the most simple solution - then they could be recovered only by forensic labs - what are the odds of them going though your or public garbage piles, collecting broken media pieces? pretty much none worth mentioning

besides, all the things about you are already known, way before you even started experiencing them (for the answer see my sig hehe)

**alpacino** · 21.01.17, 20:17

Once I had to throw away several cds and dvds so I broke them one by one, it's repetitive work and sometimes hurts the hand, since the pieces become sharp.
I remember once I saw a CD/DVD shredder that worked pretty much like a paper shredder, but I don't know if it's easy to find nor the price.

**Instab** · 21.01.17, 21:05

burn them

**anon** · 22.01.17, 05:27

Manually breaking the discs into pieces is the simplest and most effective method. Always wrap them in a towel first, to keep your hands and eyes safe. To accelerate the process, you could snap each disc just once, then insert the halves into a blender and run it at full power for some seconds at a time. Then throw away only a few of the remains every day, if you want to be extra-careful...

Other ideas:

Burning or dissolving with acetone. This should be done in open air locations, as the resulting fumes may be dangerous.
Microwaving them for five seconds. They will uniformly crack with a neat maze-like pattern. This also requires good ventilation, as well as careful handling of discs after they undergo the process.

Originally Posted by alpacino

I remember once I saw a CD/DVD shredder that worked pretty much like a paper shredder, but I don't know if it's easy to find nor the price.

I have seen those too. Insert a disc and they'll either crunch it into pieces or scratch every milimeter of it, so that any sort of recovery is impossible.

**Master Razor** · 22.01.17, 16:26

I remember once I saw a CD/DVD shredder that worked pretty much like a paper shredder, but I don't know if it's easy to find nor the price.

I have seen those too. Insert a disc and they'll either crunch it into pieces or scratch every milimeter of it, so that any sort of recovery is impossible.

I had one of those at work, very effective. Turned them into small, thin shreads. But we don't have them anymore.

While I do appreciate the suggestions, I was looking for something else.
How about fixing an old CD-ROM drive to scratch the entire surface?

**alpacino** · 23.01.17, 01:14

Originally Posted by anon

Microwaving them for five seconds. They will uniformly crack with a neat maze-like pattern. This also requires good ventilation, as well as careful handling of discs after they undergo the process.

Would you ever use this microwave oven again for food?

**anon** · 23.01.17, 04:44

Originally Posted by Master Razor

How about fixing an old CD-ROM drive to scratch the entire surface?

This might be doable with some tinkering and if you can get the drive to "read" all of the disc, but I've never heard of such a thing. While we're at it, increasing the laser's output power to the point it damages discs would probably also work...

Originally Posted by alpacino

Would you ever use this microwave oven again for food?

I wouldn't use that method at all. My post was purely for educational purposes

**system28** · 23.01.17, 12:45

I used the microwave method some time ago, when I had to destroy 20+ CDs

"Ride the lightning"

**takomania** · 26.01.17, 21:13

i disposed of over 1000 cds and dvds a few years back.

i just broke each one by hand - they almost never snap straight in two - the discs usually shatter into a few big and a bunch of little pieces. 30 seconds in i grabbed a big trash bag, and each time i picked up a disc, i would hold it inside the bag, snap it (wincing every single time lol) and then grab the next one. you wont need gloves as the plastic is brittle, but i do recommend holding them in a large trash bag like i did, or tiny pieces of plastic will be flying everywhere (and could also get into your eyes if you're unlucky).

i broke all the discs this way in about 2 days (that wasn't continuous!) - it's easy but tedious and your hands can ache after a while. if you're disposing of a large quantity of discs, you can easily mix and then split the fragments between numerous bags before throwing them into different trashcans.

originally i did want to burn them, but i didn't have anywhere to burn that quantity of trash...

**Master Razor** · 26.01.17, 22:41

i just broke each one by hand - they almost never snap straight in two - the discs usually shatter into a few big and a bunch of little pieces. 30 seconds in i grabbed a big trash bag, and each time i picked up a disc, i would hold it inside the bag, snap it (wincing every single time lol) and then grab the next one. you wont need gloves as the plastic is brittle, but i do recommend holding them in a large trash bag like i did, or tiny pieces of plastic will be flying everywhere (and could also get into your eyes if you're unlucky).

That is my current method as well. In large garbage bag it works quite well.

**anon** · 27.01.17, 02:33

Originally Posted by takomania

i just broke each one by hand - they almost never snap straight in two

My experience is that they'll either break instantly or bend like cardboard, and in the latter case you'll have to "pinch" the bent area to snap them. This likely depends on the brand and manufacturing quality.

**alpacino** · 27.01.17, 05:11

My experience was similar, I used to stick my hand with the disc inside a big can of thrash in my house and break them. Some would snap right away in pieces, some in 2 pieces and some would just bend (usually the pressed and original ones).
I remember I disposed 3 CD game called Morrowind that came with a Geforce 3 Ti I owned a long time ago. Now last year a friend of mine was looking for those because someone is making a mod where you can play this Morrowind with the Skyrim engine or something like that.

**anon** · 27.01.17, 07:16

Originally Posted by alpacino

I remember I disposed 3 CD game called Morrowind that came with a Geforce 3 Ti I owned a long time ago. Now last year a friend of mine was looking for those because someone is making a mod where you can play this Morrowind with the Skyrim engine or something like that.

Relax, I'm sure "backup copies" of the game can be downloaded with ease

Morrowind seemed like a good game, it was a fusion of a fantasy world with GTA. I had it and the two expansions, but I just couldn't get into it, it was perhaps too free and non-linear (excessive choice can be a problem).

**Master Razor** · 27.01.17, 12:56

My experience is that they'll either break instantly or bend like cardboard, and in the latter case you'll have to "pinch" the bent area to snap them. This likely depends on the brand and manufacturing quality.

Exactly. I'd say it depends on the batch process. Had 3 CDs, same manufacturer, one broke easily, while the other two just bent.

While we are on the subject, does anyone know why some CDs are very transparent-like and you just see through them? Windows DVDs, audio CDs, etc. are somewhat thicker and cannot see through them while blank recordable disks are thinner and transparent. Why is that?