Why is Hard Drive Destruction so Important?

A hard drive contains all the information you have accessed on a daily basis. Even if you delete files, are they ever really gone? No. The right person with the right tools can access any and all of your data when your hard drive is left susceptible. This includes your personal data, such as credit card information, bank account numbers, etc. – virtually anything you have accessed and allowed on your computer. Your hard drive is the repository for this information and it remains there until special methods for destroying your data have been put in place.

Getting a New Computer

Is your computer obsolete? It happens more frequently now than ever before. Are you purchasing a new computer soon? What’s going to happen with your current computer when it becomes your old computer? Will it sit in a corner of your basement with other old computers and e-devices?

Don’t Need ‘Em But How do you Get Rid of Them?

Your computer has declined in value and you have replaced it with a new model. Will your local computer store recycle it for you and what does that mean? Will they practice safe hard drive destruction before turning it over to recyclers? How will you know? So many questions; who has the answers? What should you do?

Methods of Hard Drive Destruction

There are different methods of hard drive destruction. Which one is best and which one is available to you?

Overwriting

Can you overwrite the contents of your hard drive? Software is available that can help with this. However, it is time-consuming, tedious, and not necessarily 100 percent effective.

Degaussing

What does this mean? Simply put, it is eliminating the hard drive’s magnetic field. Two methods for this exist: pass the hard drive through powerful magnets or the use of a powerful electromechanical pulse that does virtually the same thing but within a secure chamber.

Crushing

This is a relatively inexpensive method of distorting the hard drive with a machine that crushes it. It is best used for a small number of hard drives, not necessarily a large volumesuch as a business might have. The information is technically still there using the crushing method, but it will be nearly impossible to get at it.

Shredding

Hard drive destruction through the use of shredders works similarly to paper shredders – they just shred the hard drives into pieces. While the information technically is still there, somewhere, on some piece, it is again virtually impossible to retrieve it.

Disintegration

Using this method, a fairly large mechanical incineration machine works similar to a shredder, only the remaining pieces and bits of the hard drive are much, much smaller.

Whichever method you choose to suit your needs best, or a combination of methods, make no mistake that proper hard drive destruction is vital to the security of your sensitive information.