Can a small industrial demagnetizer erase a hard drive

Open it up, put a propane torch to it until it glows.

I prefer using the drive's built in software to destroy the data, but to some people everything looks like a loose railroad spike.

We've disassembed and destroyed a number of drives, large [old Barracuda's with magnesium housings...] and small [laptop].

Some have glass platters, many don't. Most have a good selection of tiny screws.

All have interesting magnets and the other parts succumb to the

Really gets down to how thoroughly you want it destroyed.

Want to do it thoroughly, grind the platters to dust, mix the dust with Thermite, burn the Thermite, then spread the results over the Pacific.

Quick and dirty way, open the drive up, toss in a handful of hundred mesh silicon carbide and a teaspoon of nitric acid, close it up, and run it until parts stop rattling around inside it.

Not as good as grinding the platters to dust, mixing with thermite, burning, and scattering the ashes, but it's less effort.

Software won't destroy it beyond the ability of a first world government to recover. For that you need to do physical damage.

The OP died three months ago.

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Want to do it thoroughly, grind the platters to dust, mix the dust with Thermite, burn the Thermite, then spread the results over the Pacific.

I think that he said that I died 3 months ago.

LOL I think the point was made quite well.