Whether you’re a business owner or someone looking to protect sensitive data, there are plenty of reasons to want to wreck your hard drive. Most gadgets contain essential information like addresses, passwords, and credit card details that you wouldn’t want in the wrong hands.
But throwing out old hardware or using blunt force to wreck it isn’t the only way to destroy sensitive material. Before you head to the nearest trash can, you should consider these eco-friendly ways to destroy data from hard drives. You’ll preserve privacy and the environment.
Degaussing
For an effective data destruction method, consider degaussing as an alternative since it uses finely tuned magnets with a solid field to neutralize and demagnetize particles within the component. This approach manipulates and destroys the data’s magnetic signature, resulting in unretrievable material.
While this practice destroys internal information, the actual hard drive is still available for future use.
Data-Wiping Programs
Many of the latest versions of data-wiping software include updates and recovery features that allow you to reset PCs and erase crucial data. However, data-wiping programs make the information unreadable by overwriting contents so that the original version is difficult to read with no scope of recovery.
Erasure
While erasure is another term for overwriting, it’s an ideal approach for businesses that own off-lease hardware like desktops, laptops, and enterprise data centers. Erasure doesn’t alter the physical device so that you can utilize the hard drive in the future for different storage needs.
This data sanitization method may include basic formatting of equipment with unique software or data purge.
While the best method to prevent data breaches is to damage hard drives physically, these types of hardware contain toxic materials, so you must be cautious. Use these eco-friendly ways to destroy data. Through them, you’ll ensure the permanent deletion of personal information. Therefore, you won’t need to fear the consequences of improper data destruction.
