Crush Your Old Gadgets, Dead

At $8,000, the Data Destroyer probably isn't something you'll be picking up at your local Office Depot anytime soon. But I had the chance to watch this big, industrial-looking box smash up a hard drive in just 10 seconds. Who was I to say no?

Intended more for corporate security departments than, say, your den, the Norazza Data Destroyer itself isn't much to look at; it's essentially a big, gray box that resembles a small safe. It has a big green button when it's time to get cracking, and a sliding door of crushing death for your doomed hard drives, PDAs, cell phones, or what have you. Sadly, the door isn't transparent—maybe that's a feature that'll make the Data Destroyer Extreme.

For my little demo, the Norazza rep got a sacrificial hard drive and slid it into the machine; he then closed the door, turned a key, and pressed the big green button. That's when the pain began; to wit, four stainless-steel spikes, each exerting a few thousand pounds of pressure, pierced the poor hard drive with a high-pitched whir, punctuated by the occasional crack. Ten seconds later, we opened the door, and behold: our crushed hard drive had indeed given up the ghost, all hope of data recovery gone forever.

The pro version of the Data Destroyer will be arriving in...well, maybe not your standard retails outlets per se, but it'll start shipping next month. Bargain hunters might consider the hand-cranked version of the Data Destroyer for a mere $3,700.