Can you physically erase data on a mechanical HDD without destroying it?
Disks are precision devices - the moment you take your (special, anti tampering )screwdriver and open anything that is near the data, say, the top plate, you'll get dust and other lovely things, or throw something out of alignment, and next thing you know, drive heads are ploughing lovely furrows all over that polished data surface.
The moment you try physical destruction, it is permanant, and irrecoverable