How To Dispose of a Hard Drive Securely

You store a great deal of sensitive information on the 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 this level of data security.

Don’t Just Erase

Many data wiping programs are available to clean out hard drives, but simply erasing files isn’t enough. Even if you use a “shredding utility” that not only erases but also overwrites the drive with junk data, someone with enough determination 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 is also 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.

Stop the Spinning

If a hard drive’s interior platter can’t turn, the data can’t easily be retrieved. A quick look around the Internet turns up a lot of 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 doesn’t destroy enough of the platter to prevent data access. Without a hard drive shredder, it’s difficult to render a drive completely unreadable.

Shred It Up

Secure hard drive shredding is a common service offered by professionals to businesses that disposes of data in a responsible, reliable way. Hiring someone to shred your drives takes the burden of data destruction off you as a business owner and gives you 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 training to handle your hard drives properly and ensure that every track on the drive is destroyed.

Let PROSHRED Miami take care of your secure hard drive shredding needs with our professional-quality hard drive shredder. We’ll come right to your business and destroy your hard drives onsite so that no one else has access to your data. 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 Miami is dedicated to maintaining the security of your business data. Contact us today for more information.