The last time we put new drives in the SAN, one of the storage guys brought by the following contraption:

1 plastic storage bin with a hard-drive shaped/sized hole in the bottom of 1 side, and a 1" diameter hole in the top.
1 48-inch steel breaker bar
1 32-oz mini-sledge

Place hard drive, platter-side first, into hole. Align breaker bar with 'exposed' area of platter. Strike until your aggressions are released.

The point on the breaker bar makes a neat 1/2" diameter hole in the top casing of the drive so you can see all the shiny glittery bits that are left over from the platters.