Hard Drive Destruction and Hard Drive Shredding

Hard drive destruction is an attempt at ensuring the hard drive of a computer is unreadable. This is the best way to make to truly secure your private information.  The following are ways in which one can attempt to destroy a hard drive and the information stored on it:

  • Hard drive shredding - Physically destroying a hard drive by shredding it is a very safe and effective means of making your hard drive inoperable. 
  • Degaussing - Degaussing a hard drive is the act of utilizing a very specific and extremely powerful magnet to wipe out any information contained on a hard drive.
  • Overwriting -  Overwriting a hard drive incorporates software designed to alter the information contained on a hard drive by changing the binary code (1’s and 0’s) so that all information is no longer contained in its original format. 

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As businesses switch to electronic records, data breaches are becoming a serious threat.  HIPAA laws are set in place to protect those whose information is stored on hard drives.  The hard drive of a computer contains a wealth of information that can be used by identity thieves to sabotage people’s personal privacy.  Hard drive destruction can be utilized to ensure that a computer’s hard drive is rendered unrecoverable, but only hard drive shredding provides the safest and most secure means of accomplishing this task.
Of course, there are pros and cons to each method of destroying hard drives.  The advantage to the three ways listed above is that they all work well.  The disadvantages come into play when one weighs the price, needs, and thoroughness that each incorporates in their specific sphere.
 hard drive destruction

Here are a few characteristics of each method of secure hard drive destruction:

  • Degaussing - Degaussing is extremely costly.  The magnet used is very expensive and has a short working life.  It is also very time consuming.  In-house degaussing isn’t convenient or cost effective.  One also has to add to the cost of storing all hard drives during the long process that this entails.
  • Overwriting - The software for this method can be bought for less than the others, but again, it is extremely time consuming when considering the number of times the software has to go over the code contained on the hard drive – at least three (and even then not 100% perfect).
  • Hard drive shredding  -  This is the most flexible of the three.  Using this method to destroy hard drives is difficult in-house.  However, a third party hard drive destruction service that has a powerful disk shredder at their disposal can accomplish the task quickly and easily.  Using a powerful digital shredder, a company can completely obliterate a hard drive rendering it unrecognizable, let alone unusable.

Destroying hard drives isn’t a fad and should be considered an important step to prevent any problems that may arise.  With the digital age progressing at an uncanny pace, there is a strong push to ensure the safety of people’s sensitive material.  As more businesses are switching to digitalization of records, they are not only becoming aware of possible data breaches, but of the consequences as well.  Legislation has been put into place that targets those that are not up to date with data protection.  Penalties for electronic breaches of security are steep enough that destroying hard drives becomes a viable, if not imperative means of protecting one’s business from trouble. 

Though there are three ways of destroying hard drives, only one provides 100% security and cost effectiveness of hard drive destruction.  A quick recap of hard drive shredding:

  • Destroying hard drive data by shredding the item, is the only way to be completely sure that it will never be recovered.
  • Hard drive shredding provides the fastest means of hard drive destruction.  A business can send all of their computers to a third party hard drive destruction service in one shipment. 
  • Utilizing hard drive data destruction services means that you easily comply with HIPAA and other legislation set in place to penalize those that are lax with their security. 
  • The cost effectiveness of hard drive destruction by shredding is unparalleled.  This is driven by the fact that it is done once, and such services generally provide storage for the hard drives to be shredded as well.
When considering eliminating your old hard drives, one must think of the four most important ideas involved with the destruction process:
  1. Compliance with current HIPAA and other laws governing the information; protect yourself and your clients.
  2. How thorough the means of destruction is; if there is a guaranteed option, take it.
  3. The cost of destroying your material; make sure you get the most security for the price.
  4. Convenience; logistics and speed govern the cost of the operation.
Keep these thoughts in mind when choosing the mode of secure hard drive destruction.  When choosing a hard drive shredding service, ask about what they are capable of offering.  Questions should include:
  • Do you offer a certificate of destruction?
  • Can you store the material in a secure facility before it is shredded?
  • Are you HIPAA compliant?

Asking questions such as these will give you a good idea of what the company is capable of.  It will also set your mind at ease knowing that the hard drive destruction service you are choosing is working to ensure that your hard drives are destroyed in a proper manner suitable to your standards as well as compliant with the government’s current legislation.