Despite how important hard drives are these days in the running of a modern business few actually plan for how to safely dispose of them. But you should, think of it like this computers are a common sight in every business aren’t they? Then think about all the data and information that has been stored on those computers over time.

Personal employee information, contacts, banking information and much more. If you want to upgrade to larger hard drives in the future or revamp your computer system the old hard drives will first need to be removed but then what?

Because of all the important data, those drives have held you can’t just throw then in the bin, can you? Now, of course, most people will wipe their hard drives but that alone won’t be enough as the data can sometimes be recovered. This means safe and secure hard drive removal needs to be a bit more in-depth.

If you take the lazy approach with hard drive removal then you are leaving your business open to significant risk. But the good news is there are actually multiple different ways you can securely get rid of hard drives. Let’s take a look at some of them in more detail.

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Hard Drive Removal – What Is The Best Method?

The most effective and secure way to ensure your old hard drives don’t pose any kind of security risk is to destroy them. That might sound extreme but it is actually standard practice in many industries and there are even multiple different ways you can go about it.

We’ll be examining two of the most common methods shredding and degaussing. These aren’t the only methods for secure hard drive destruction but they are two of the most popular so let’s put them head to head and see which is best shall we?

Shredding Your Hard Drives

Shredding your old hard drives can be approached in a similar way to shredding paper! Okay the shredders themselves don’t quite look the same but the general principles of the shredder are the same. Shredders quite literally break down hard drives into tiny pieces securely destroying them and ensuring nothing can be recovered.

They can take a little getting used to but are quite simple to use with a little practice and like a paper shredder, they are available in numerous different designs and sizes. Hard drive shredders also have the benefit of being able to shred other devices like CDs, DVDs, tablet computers, mobile phones and more.

Hard drive shredders do vary in price depending on the size and features you want. Some people opt to send their hard drives to outside companies for shredding but this does come with some notable security risks. So, investing in your own hard drive shredder will be safer.

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Degaussing Your Hard Drives

Degaussing properly doesn’t have the name recognition of shredding so let’s look at what exactly a degausser does. A degausser employs a high-energy magnetic field which it charges through hard drives to effectively destroy all the stored data.

The charge scrambles the data effectively making it unreadable and unrecoverable so rather than destroying the hard drive physically you are instead destroying the data on it. Degaussing also makes the hard drive unreadable so you can simply recycle it afterward.

While it’s debatable some could argue that because of this a degausser is the most secure method of destroying a hard drive. While degaussers are more complex than simply putting something in a shredder they aren’t as difficult to use as they might first seem.

Although there certainly will be a bit of a learning curve involved when using one. You also need to consider the capabilities of the degausser you buy carefully to ensure it can handle the formats you need to get rid of. Degaussers also come in many different sizes/ varieties so do your research carefully if you are thinking of getting one.

So Which Is Best?

Both shredders and degaussers are very effective ways of getting rid of hard drives. Shredders are simpler and easy to use but a degausser while being more complicated does give you a way to more effectively destroy the data.

They could also be the cheaper alternative as well although that will depend on the size/ features you need. Overall, both shredders and degaussers will be a wise investment and a great addition to any office/ business looking for a more secure way to destroy their old hard drives.