Hard drives, like paper documents, must be destroyed to ensure your information is safe. However, the process is not as simple as taking a hammer to the drive. Here is a quick look at the process.

What is Hard Drive Shredding?

The process of physically destroying a hard drive and rendering it unusable is hard drive shredding. It should be done to all old and unwanted hard drives to ensure that any data contained in them cannot be accessed. In addition, shredding is a more secure alternative to degaussing or formatting, as these methods can leave traces of data that a trained person can recover.

How Are Hard Drives Shredded?

The process of shredding begins with collecting the drives. You can bring the drives to us directly, or if you work for a business with many hard drives and other documents that need shredding, we can schedule a time to pick them up.

Once we have received the drives, we use a degaussing machine to wipe all data magnetically.

Next, the hard drive is physically shredded with our specialized equipment, which breaks them down into small pieces that cannot be reconstructed. We then send the pieces for recycling, as many drives have metal that can be reused.

Finally, we provide a certificate of destruction to confirm that the drives were successfully shredded. Some businesses require this certificate to comply with federal regulations that mandate data security.

Why is Degaussing or Formatting not Enough?

Degaussing and formatting do not provide complete data destruction. Degaussing removes magnetic fields but does not physically destroy the drive or the platters that store data. Advanced data recovery techniques can still extract information from the drive. Formatting erases the file system information and creates a new file system, but it does not overwrite the actual data on the drive. Data recovery software can still recover the original data from a formatted drive. Shredding the hard drive physically destroys the platters and makes it impossible to recover any data.

How Can Hard Drive Shredding Services Businesses or Individuals?

There are many reasons why hard drive shredding is essential, but here are a few of the most important:

• Data protection: Hard drives contain sensitive and confidential information, and improper disposal can lead to data breaches. Shredding ensures that the data is destroyed and cannot be recovered by anyone.
• Compliance: Many industries have regulations that require the secure destruction of data. Hard drive shredding services provide a certificate of destruction, which can be used to demonstrate compliance with these regulations.
• Peace of mind: Shredding provides peace of mind that sensitive information has been securely destroyed and will not fall into the wrong hands.
• Convenience: Hard drive shredding services provide a convenient and hassle-free solution for securely destroying large quantities of hard drives. They can also pick up the drives, which saves time and effort.

Contact Jessica’s Shredding Team today to schedule a time to pick up your old hard drives or other secure documents for destruction.