The NSA Listed PD-5 physically destroys hard drives by bending, breaking, and mangling the hard drive and its internal components including the data platters. Using a rugged, stainless-steel crushing wedge, the PD-5 bends the data platters, preventing the hard drive from “spinning up” or the hard disk platters from being removed and placed on a spin stand used in laboratory data recovery techniques. The PD-5 also cracks the hard-drive housing, breaks the PC board, and smashes the read-write heads. It is recommended that hard drives first be degaussed before being physically destroyed to ensure all data is irretrievable.