Securely wipe a dead hard drive
- 26 November, 2009 03:53
- Comments 1
Hard drives almost always contain some potentially compromising information, such as credit card and social security numbers. You should always wipe a hard drive before turning it over to someone else. But that job is particularly difficult if the hard drive no longer works.
But why would you even need to secure a drive that doesn't work? If the drive's electronics are fried but the mechanical components are still working, someone could fix it without destroying your data, which could then fall into the wrong hands.
What you have to do is find someone who can degauss your drive. Translation: Someone who can erase it with a very powerful, very expensive magnet.
One thing you could do is talk to the people you're returning the drive to, whether that's the manufacturer or a recycling center. They may offer a policy of degaussing drives when they receive them.
If they don't, or if you don't trust them, you can find a company in your area that degausses drives.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email Computerworld
- Follow Computerworld on twitter
- IDC Case Study - EMC IT Increasing Efficiency, Reducing Costs, and Optimising IT with Data Deduplication
- Seven Ways Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Makes Your Supply Chain More Efficient
- How to Choose an SMB - Unified Communications as a Service (UCAAS) Solution
- Gartner MarketScope for Application Life Cycle Management
- Reconciling Datacenter consolidation and security: It starts with an integrated approach
-
Coalition NBN better or worse?
-
Coalition NBN better or worse?
-
CeBIT 2012: Will NBN speed up freight delivery times?
-
NBN build gaining momentum daily: Quigley
-
Coalition NBN better or worse?
-
Introduction to Statistics for Forensic Scientists
-
The Scientific American a Day in the Life of Your Brain
-
An Introduction to Molecular Biotechnology - Molecular Fundamentals, Methods and Applications in Modern Biotechnology
-
Proteins - Structure and Function
-
Writing Scientific Research Articles - Strategy and Steps
-
Molecular Forensics
-
Statistics for Terrified Biologists
-
Dictionary of DNA and Genome Technology 2E
-
Fluorescence Applications in Biotechnology and Life Sciences
Comments
John
Go out and get a Rare Earth Magnet. Wrap it in .5mm Copper Wire - Stripped of course - coil-like.
Apply current, put near HDD. If you're worried about someone taking out the platters and the drive is destroyed or you don't want to use it -ever; GET A HAMMER. And don't risk it.
Recycling plants can still recycle bent metal.
Post new comment