October 13, 2021
How to Dispose of a Hard Drive Securely
In this digital age, it’s very likely that you store a great deal of sensitive information on hard drives throughout your business network, including customer contacts, invoices, emails, and financial data. When it comes time to dispose of an old hard drive, it’s essential to make sure that none of these records can be retrieved by a malicious third party. Proper hard drive destruction techniques are necessary for data security assurance.
Erasing Hard Drives Isn’t Enough to Protect Your Information
Many programs are available to clean information off old hard drives, but simply erasing files isn’t enough to secure sensitive information. Even when using a “shredding utility” that erases and overwrites hard drive data, the hard drive may still contain confidential information. With enough determination, some may still be able to read the original files and compromise the safety of your company’s information.
Another process called degaussing exposes hard drives to a strong magnetic field, but due to differences in the magnetic density of drives, this can also be an unreliable method. Although you should always begin the process of hard drive disposal with a thorough reformatting or wiping of data, this is only a preliminary step and shouldn’t be relied on as a security measure.
DIY Hard Drive Disposal Can be Dangerous
If a hard drive’s interior platter can’t turn, the data can’t easily be retrieved. A quick internet search results in many do-it-yourself methods for this type of hard drive destruction, but most of them can’t be depended on and may be unsafe.
Suggestions such as smashing the drive can send small pieces flying, some of which could be made from toxic materials. Drilling holes in the drive often will not destroy enough of the platter to prevent data access. Without a hard drive shredder, it’s difficult to render a drive completely unreadable and keep information completely safe.
How to do Hard Drive Destruction the Right Way
Hiring a professional and trusted service such as PROSHRED® Baltimore to dispose of your hard drives takes the burden of data destruction off you as a business and provides the peace of mind that comes from knowing that important company information won’t fall into the wrong hands. Data destruction professionals have the right equipment and dynamic methods to handle your hard drives properly and ensure that every track on the drive is destroyed.
Schedule a Hard Drive Destruction Service Today
Let PROSHRED® Baltimore take care of your secure hard drive shredding needs and we’ll come right to your business to destroy on-site. When the process is done, you’ll get an official Certificate of Destruction for your business records. With our extensive certifications and commitment to legislative compliance, PROSHRED® Baltimore is dedicated to maintaining the security of your business data. Contact us today to see how we can help keep your information secure with a FREE estimate!