In this day and age information can be extremely powerful if the wrong person gets their hands on it. The right information in the wrong hands can be detrimental to a company. This is why it is extremely important for companies to know exactly what information should be safeguarded versus information that doesn`t need to be guarded.
Due to the fact that we have moved from storing information in cabinets to storing it digitally, many companies have come to realize that simply erasing a hard drive is not enough. It doesn`t ensure that valuable information will not fall into the wrong hands. This is why many companies are turning to hard drive destruction.
[Recommended read: How to Store Critical Data (or Where to Keep the Good Stuff?)]
How You Can Retrieve Deleted Information
Gone are the days when you can simply hit delete on your computer and all the information stored in your hard drive would never be seen again. Delete can be considered as nothing else but surface erasure. It only does away with the shortcuts and links that lead those who are tech savvy to the actual information. System recovery software can undo all the actions made by the delete command, so those who know this will usually go a step further than just deleting. They will take the time to format the entire hard drive, which is far better than just deleting the information.
[Read more: Retrieving Deleted Files from Hard Drive – Methods and Precautions]
Are Your Really Erasing Your Hard Drive?
This still allows for specialists to easily recover all the info that is hidden despite the missing address tables. It is harder, but possible. Another option apart from hard drive destructionis erasing the hard drive. Now this may be a great solution if it didn’t have one drawback. It takes quite some time to erase all the data stored on a hard drive. To make matters worse, the bigger the hard drive the longer it will take, which means if you have a lot of data you could be waiting for hours for the information to be erased.
[Read also: Steps to Fix Corrupted or Inaccessible Hard Drive and Recover Data]
Gone for Good
This is why the best way to make sure your information or data is completely erased is to go for hard drive destruction. This will cause the hard drive to be inoperative, which is the result you want if you would like the information on your hard drive to be destroyed. The price is not too high if you consider the alternative of the information getting into your competitors hands. Hard drive destruction guarantees that you will never have to worry about somebody getting their hands on a hard drive you threw into the garbage somewhere.
These services are not new in the market and a lot of businesses have already started including them in their monthly expenditures. They subscribe for shredding and other services that make sure when they want to get rid of data it is done right. By subscribing, a better quote is given to them and it also assures them that they are constantly making sure all their information is where it is supposed to be. It is very secure because the majority of these firms will request that a representative from your business watch the destruction of these storage media and documents.
one word:
MAGNET
This will completely erase your harddrive.
Just sit it on a big @ss magnet for a few days and I bet nothing will be able to read it again.
Or take it to a computer shop that has a degauser which is nothing but a magnet.
Or just burn the freaken hard drive if it’s that serious.
A number of years ago I had the idea of destroying a hard drive. It was small and I didn’t need it anymore so I figured why not. I took the cover apart so the heads were exposed. Then, I took a hammer to it. I’ll tell you that thing was tougher than I thought. I mean I really let it have it. I wasn’t able to break the heads. All I could manage to do was dent them up heavily. Obviously that was enough to prevent anyone from using it ever again, but I just assumed I could break them.
I also have tried some of those heavy duty drive wipers, and you are right they take forever to wipe the data.
Yes, you almost need to melt your hard drive and burry it deep inside the woods to be able to get rid of all information these days.
LOL… 🙂
I would not destroy my hard drive just like that 😉 I’d rather keep it for later use.
I agree! However, if the HDD is broken and cannot be used anymore, you might want to destroy it first prior to dumping it! Just in case… 🙂
For me hard drive destruction would be the last thought. Else, wiping algos are great to wipe out any confidential data from a hard drive of any format (HFS or NTFS).
Thanks for sharing these. I didn’t realize a total destruction of a hard drive is a must to ensure security of the deleted files.
I started believing all those recovery techniques after I saw a technician play a broken CD in front of me.
Anything is possible these days. Technology sometimes gives us a freak isn’t it? 🙂
I am engineering student so I will TELL YOU ABOUT DELETION in architecture level.
what happens, all the data you store in the computer Hard-drive, sore their with a particular address and using this address computer allow you to access your information.
but when you delete this information, data still exists but the processor deletes its address. so , no address leads to no data thus it cannot be retrieved manually.
but using some software programs like “recuva” and all., you can retrieve your data even after the deletion….
its the whole concept of deletion…:)
When it comes time for me to get rid of a hard drive I make sure it never starts again by opening the case and then puncturing 5 holds along the disk so that they will never spin again . I would have to agree though that those hard drive are much stronger physically than I first thought.