For many years and even today, most people think of technology as out of sight, out of mind. Have you ever stored sensitive information, or temporarily kept highly valuable information on a PC? Simply deleting it does not actually get rid of the information! For this reason, there is a proper method of hard drive and electronic media destruction that will actually protect your sensitive information.
Why is Deleting Information Not Good Enough?
The problem with deleting information conventionally through an operating system is that it’s never really gone. We tend to think of data as being convenient and at our mercy, but that isn’t entirely true. Data can leave a trail much like paper can. This is all very mundane for ordinary computer users, but when it comes to protecting information—it becomes of the utmost importance for security.
The operating system of a computer is a complex thing to fully understand, but even if you do, you’d just be scratching the surface. The OS as far as ordinary users go is primarily a visual layer that lets you interact with the fundamental components of your PC. This is why the saying, “out of sight, out of mind”, is so apt. We tend to think of ourselves as having total control over our data, but we don’t.
Data that has been “deleted” is still stored on the HDD, and no, we aren’t referring to being still in the trash can. Even data that has been emptied out of the trash can is still on the HDD. If you’ve seen your fair share of crime investigation shows, you’re probably aware that data can be recovered from hard drives. It can even be recovered from hard drives that have been “destroyed”.
How Do You Safely Destroy an HDD?
Well, while this isn’t a how-to guide, we can at least give you the basic rundown of how a basic HDD destruction works for a non-commercial scale. As we established, even hard drives that have been wiped or reformatted can have sensitive information such as passwords and financial information recovered.
If you want to destroy a hard drive for good, you must remove the HDD from the computer and place it on a desk. Then, use a T7 screwdriver to open the casing and remove the circuit board from the enclosure. There is a round, silver casing inside that you’ll want to open up. Using a screwdriver alone won’t cut it in most cases, you’ll need a striking tool such as a hammer to beat the poor thing off of the board. When you manage to get the round enclosure open, you get access to the prize—which is the magnetic platter inside. If you beat this disk up then information retrieval will be impossible.
Hard Drive Destruction in Columbia, South Carolina
If you read through this explanation of how hard drive destruction works, you have our thanks! As you may have learned from all of this, hard drive destruction might be a tedious process for a business that has potentially hundreds of HDD’s that need destruction.
That’s where we come in, at Shred With Us, we can help your business be compliant with data privacy standards by aiding you in disposing of all manner of electronic media such as hard drives, cassette & cartridge tapes, video and audiotapes, and other archaic forms of storage such as floppy or zip disks. We service the South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina areas with hard drive destruction. We are 100% industry compliant and would love to help your business keep itself and its customers’ information safe! Give us a call at 888-297-4733 to be on your way to virtual shredding!
