There are a number of reasons why someone would need a hard drive destroyed or shredded.
For example, if you’re recycling, selling, or giving away an old computer, you wouldn’t want anyone accessing any personal or private data that may have been previously stored on that machine.
Risks Of Old Drives
And simply wiping the drive clean (i.e. “reformatting”) and deleting files manually isn’t enough.
There are tools available that can recover deleted files- even if they were removed from the Recycle Bin a long time ago. Skilled technicians can even recover files from reformatted drives.
Advances in file recovery technology have gotten to the point that criminals can easily access sensitive data without much investment and effort on their part.
Corporations have actually lost a lot of money from discarded old drives.
In 2017, Coca-Cola suffered a data breach resulting from a disgruntled ex-employee having in their possession an old hard drive that contains the personal data of 8000 other employees.
Coca-Cola settled the case for an undisclosed amount (though it has been estimated that the company had spent at least $1 million for fraud reimbursement).
So, yes: hard disk shredding or hard drive destruction- whatever you want to call it- is very important.
There are usually two ways with which people can go about destroying their hard drives. They can either go the DIY route or the third-party specialist route.
What You Need to Know About Hard Drive Destruction
DIY Hard Drive Destruction Breaking the circuit board is the simplest and probably the easiest way to ensure that the data on your drive will be destroyed and won’t be accessed by anyone else. It requires minimal tools- all you need is a Torx screwdriver.
a. Get your hard drive and flip it over. The green part that you can see is the main circuit board.
b. Remove the circuit board by unscrewing the four Torx screws that attach it to the drive. c. Break the circuit board in half and discard it.
Usually, the method outlined above is enough to ensure that people can’t just connect the drive to another computer and read the data from it.
But if you want to be more thorough about it, here are a few additional steps that you need to do.
d. There’s usually one hidden Torx screw underneath the sticker label. Feel around with your finger for the screw- there should be a small depression where the screw is.
e. Use a flathead screwdriver to tear the label off that particular area where the depression is. Use your Torx screwdriver to remove this final screw.
f. From here you can remove the top plate of the drive. Use the flathead screwdriver if need be.
g. You should see the hard drive platter itself (or probably a stack of them).
You can remove the tone arm and other components by unscrewing the Torx screws that hold them together. Take out the platter/s.
The simple act of handling the platters with your bare hands and exposing them to air is enough to scramble and/or destroy the data on them.
If you want to be even more thorough, use your screwdriver to scratch the surface of each platter.
Alternatively, you can forego all of the disassemblies if you have a hand drill or a nail gun.
Use the hand drill to drill through the drive, or use a nail gun to drive a nail through it. This destroys the platters instantly and renders them useless.
Commercial Hard Drive Destruction
Of course, going the DIY route has its own risks. You might hurt yourself with the tools if you’re not particularly proficient in using them, or you might not do that thorough of a job in destroying your drive.
Also, if you’re in charge of disposing of dozens or even hundreds of hard drives (this can happen if you’re part of a business that utilizes a large number of computers), destroying them one by one wouldn’t be feasible.
In this case, then it would be best to send your drive to companies who specialize in drive shredding and destruction.
Usually, these outfits have dedicated machinery to destroy drives (and can probably shed through a number of them in batches), whether they may be HDD (hard disk drives) or the newer SSDs (solid state drives). Below are some of the methods that they use:
Degaussing
Degaussing involves the use of a device called a degausser. A degausser uses a large amount of magnetic energy to scramble the data on a hard drive’s platter.
Since data is stored on a magnetic layer on the surface of the platter, the degaussing process simply alters the magnetic direction on the drive so that the layer is destroyed.
Shredding
As the name implies, this method involves running the hard drive through a powerful shredder.
The machine cuts through the drive, rendering any data that may be stored on the platter useless.
After shredding the drive into bits, some shredders even compress the material that gets left behind into a compact form so that it can be easily disposed of.
Crushing
As with shredding, the drives are put through a machine that delivers a blow strong enough to break through the casing that holds the drive. This method is usually faster and is cheaper than shredding.
Melting
Melting involves dipping the drives into a corrosive acid to destroy their components. It is an effective destruction method, though it is also the most dangerous.
The chemicals release harmful compounds into the environment and they can also be hazardous to people’s health.
This method is generally not advisable in most cases and as such, is often rarely used.
Choosing a method of hard drive shredding is a big decision to make and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
You need to take into account the type of hard drive/s that you need to discard, your budget, how sensitive your data is, and your personal preferences on how thorough you want your data to be safeguarded before you can make a final decision.
Hopefully, the information provided above can help you choose which method would work best for you or your business needs.
