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Akihabara shop lets you destroy your own hard drives for only 100 yen

Master Blaster Apr 11, 2022
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Let Dark Past Final Disposal Site let you puncture your HDD.

Our writer Haruka Takagi is known for tearing around the country on her motorbike, but for the most part she resides in a quiet, rural part of country. So, when she recently came to the bright lights and big city of Tokyo on business, it was quite an eye opening experience.

Also, among the many things she wanted to do while in the metropolitan area was have her old hard disk drive and all its dark, shameful history within, permanently disposed of.

And who better to do it than the experts in the otaku mecca of Akihabara. In particular, she heard of a shop called the Dark Past Final Disposal Site that can do it in both an extremely affordable and memorable way, so she headed out to Akihabara first thing in the morning.

She was surprised at how many people there were milling about so early. Some of them were on their way to work in the area, including the legendary maids whom Haruka had heard of but never seen in the flesh before.

▼ “Whoa…”

Afraid she might be coming across as a country bumpkin, Haruka stopped gawking and headed toward her destination. It was located in a building called the Tokyo Radio Department Store, which was a six-story mishmash of highly specialized computer and electrical parts shops.

Such place would have been hardcore for even an experienced Akiba-rat like Mr. Sato, so you can imagine how intimidated Haruka must have felt at the entrance.

Nevertheless, she had a hard drive full of dirty secrets that needed to be dealt with, so she entered the main hall and took the escalator down to the basement where the Dark Past Final Disposal Site was located.

Despite the intimidating atmosphere of the place, the staff were extremely friendly and helpful to an outsider like Haruka. After she asked a clerk to destroy her drive and paid the 100-yen (US$0.80) for the service, they courteously took her through the steps.

Along one of the walls was a small machine that did the job. It packs a big punch, however, so for the sake of safety the staff member paced the hard disk inside and closed the door.

He then let Haruka do the honors of pushing the green button that would seal her embarrassing data’s fate.

The machine began to whir, and just as she looked in the window, she could see four pistons steadily push their way through the computer part as easily as a knife through butter.

She could only hear the sound of crumpling metal for a few seconds before the whole process was complete. The HDD emerged with four new holes punched through the section that contained the magnetic platters inside.

Haruka had the choice of leaving the drive with the shop to dispose of properly or taking it back home as a souvenir. However, she was warned that it might be dangerous to hang on to because the destruction process tends to leave sharp edges.

▼ The exit wounds of the HDD destruction

Speaking of souvenirs, she also received a complimentary clear file folder. Considering the whole thing only cost 100 yen to begin with, the value was incredible.

▼ The message on the folder is a parody of a famous line from the movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack: “Go! Hard disk dark past, take your abominable memories with you!”

Dark Past Final Disposal Site also destroys other storage devices like SSDs or USB drives, and if people are unable to remove their storage units from their computers, arrangements can be made if you contact them in advance.

▼ Solid state drives get folded up like an accordion

They also sell spare parts as outlined in a pamphlet given to Haruka. Parts are classified into the “junk levels” as follows: Maltreated, Struggling, Sorry, Normal, Happy, and Mysterious. They seemed to indicate varying levels of uselessness, though she couldn’t understand why anyone would want to buy useless stuff.

She was starting to get in over her head, and since she already got what she came for, Haruka decided to leave and return to the pastural beauty of her town.

And she could return home with the newfound comfort of knowing that no one will ever discover the dark secret that she was actually the founding president of the Pom Pom Purin Fan Club from 1999, and penned the notorious manifesto On the Charm of Dog Sphincters which led to the group’s shameful dissolution in 2005.

…

I probably shouldn’t have said that last part.

Store information
Dark Past Final Disposal Site / 黒歴史最終処分場。
Akihabara Final Disposal Site / 秋葉原最終処分場。
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Sotokanda 1-10-11, Tokyo Radio Department Store B1F
東京都千代田区外神田１－１０－１１東京ラジオデパートB1F
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