There are companies, such as Iron Mountain and Shred-it, whose job it is to dispose of sensitive materials. A pro of this method is that their services are certified. In a business environment, this is crucial for liability reasons. A con, however, is that the storage medium is no longer usable. They're also very expensive, so if money is an option, take it into your own hands. Get a hammer, beat the hard drive to pieces. Drill holes into it. Create a heroic, electromagnetic shock if you're feeling frisky. The creativity of this method is up to the destroyer's imagination. But heed this warning: There is no going back once the hammer falls.;
, The DoD (Department of Defense) requires that any information be overwritten no less than 7 times to ensure its disposal. Good software to use for this method is Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN). The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with random numbers generated by Mersenne twister or ISAAC. The Gutmann method, Quick Erase, DoD Short (3 passes), and DoD 5220.22m (7 passes) are also included as options. A pro of this method is that DBAN is free, and of course the HDD is still usable. Major con: TIME. It can take quite awhile depending on contributing factors such as number of passes and HDD size.
 Some drive duplicators such as The Ninja offer an option to erase data in retrospect to copying it. It does this sector to sector ensuring a thorough job. That's the major pro: it does it right. The con: Price. Well into the thousands of dollars.
Pay someone to shred or melt it.
Destroy Hard Drives with Derik's Boot and Nuke.
Use a drive duplicator.
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