Have you ever sat down to think about how much data is stored on your hard drive? Whether it’s a personal hard drive or a business hard drive, most people have financial information, photographs, credit card information, and other confidential information that they don’t want to get out of.
When it comes to disposing of and recycling hard drives, hard drive shredding is one of the best options to safely eliminate your data. Even if you attempt one of the many other destruction methods, hard drive shredding remains the most effective to protect your data from criminals and other hackers.
No matter how accurate and careful you aim to be, there’s always the risk of leaving a trace behind; that’s why it’s essential to use a hard drive shredding service. As you continue reading our blog below, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about hard drive shredding in Atlanta and why it works.
What is Hard Drive Shredding?
Hard drive shredding in Atlanta is destroying a hard drive by using a shredding device built for hard drives and other types of heavy-duty electronics. Using a hard drive shredder will ruin your hard drive, and all of its parts to ensure no sensitive data is left behind that hackers can recover. Hard drive shredding involves grinding up hard drives and other non-paper materials.
Many computer owners like to destroy their hard drives with do-it-yourself methods, but unfortunately, these methods aren’t always effective because they can leave sensitive data behind. Techniques like making holes into your hard drives can leave sensitive data behind. With hard drive shredding, you eliminate and destroy every piece of your hard drive, leaving no portion readable by anyone.
When you’re no longer using your hard drive and have removed all of your sensitive data that you’ll want to keep, you can use an external hard drive or other storage options, such as the cloud, to keep your sensitive data secure. Hard drive devices can often contain personal and sensitive information, so theft occurs if you don’t correctly destroy your device. Your personal or company hard drive may include information such as:
- Location information
- Banking information
- Credit card information
- Sensitive business files
- Social media information
- Photographs
Many electronic users believe that once you have removed your files from your hard drive, your sensitive information will be eliminated. However, this isn’t always accurate. If you leave your hard drive intact, you leave behind the chance of your sensitive information being retrieved by hackers.
With hard drive shredding, those physical components remove any opportunity for your information to be retrieved from your hard drive. Hard drive shredding in Atlanta works efficiently because it permanently removes your physical hard drive and destroys sensitive information.
What is a Hard Drive? Blast from the Past!
Now that you’re familiar with what hard drive shredding in Atlanta is, you may want to know what exactly a hard drive is. Many people believe it or not, don’t know what a hard drive is, as it’s not as commonly known as it once was back in the 90s. A hard drive is the most significant part of your component.
The hard drive is a piece of computer hardware, which means it contains a physical component that you can view, feel, and remove from your computer software. A hard drive has almost everything on your device, such as your operating system and other forms of software. Your computer’s hard drive stores every single file you’ve ever saved on your computer since you first bought it.
Today’s hard drives can store up to five hundred gigabytes of data or more!
Methods of Hard Drive Shredding in Atlanta
There are different methods to destroy your hard drive, and the best hard drive shredding methods depend on your stored information. Some of the various types of hard drive shredding techniques include:
Degaussing
Degaussing involves using a hard drive shredder to eliminate the magnetic areas of your hard drive device that stores sensitive information. The sensitive information stored on your hard drive devices uses magnetic concepts to store data. Degaussing uses a specific technique to force your hard drive to change the magnetic direction of your hard drive and destroy it, thus eliminating all data in the process.
Degaussing your hard drive is an essential method to eliminate sensitive data from a hard drive, but the technique requires the help of a technical professional. Degaussing is typically only used if you continuously dispense sensitive information on your hard drive in high volumes. This method would make more sense when used by organizations instead of personal use.
Hard Drive Shredding
As we mentioned earlier, hard drive shredding in Atlanta involves using a particular machine to break your hard drive down to pieces, making it impossible for anyone to piece it back together. Hard drive shredding is one of the most effective ways to destroy your hard drive by running it through a shredding process. Many hard drive shredding devices will also compact materials for more straightforward disposal.
Unlike a typical hard drive, other types of drives, such as solid-state drives, keep sensitive information on chips. This makes it impossible for solid-state drives to use degaussing techniques. For drives that store their data on chips, shredding, and other methods are among the safest ways to destroy hard drives safely.
For businesses that don’t want their data removed from their building, shredding on-site is one of the best methods. Shredding on-site ensures that no company takes responsibility for losing data or having their data stolen when heading to disposal.
Similar to degaussing, if you need to destroy your sensitive information by hard drive shredding, it is not wise to do it yourself but to contact a trained hard drive shredding professional. It’s very rare that hard drive shredding devices are used for personal use because of how pricey machines are running.
The hard drive shredding process also creates contaminants that only a trained personal should handle, in addition to disposal methods. In addition, many organizations have access to portable hard drive shredding devices that like to do shredding on-site if they’re concerned about privacy.
Hard Drive Crushing
Hard drive shredding/crushing involves using a heavy mechanical device to create severe pressure on your hard drive to break up the magnetic board and its internal components. Hence, they are unable to repair or recover.
Hard drive crushing can be used in office settings, making them an excellent option for on-site shredding or crushing. The hard drive crushing technique is a very intricate process that should only be done by a trained professional.
Hard Drive Melting
The hard drive melting process entails melting hard drives using acid to destroy components and other areas. Nitric acids are one of the most commonly used acids to melt hard drives. While they are highly effective techniques, they are also very dangerous and should only be done by a professional.
When using acids, they contain corrosive materials and require professionals to use particular tools and handling techniques to avoid injury.
Hard Drive Drilling
Another type of hard drive destruction method, if you’re looking at hard drive shredding in Atlanta, is hard drive drilling. When using the drilling technique, drills are made into the hard drives and their storage area, destroying sensitive information and making it unusable.
This hard drive shredding technique entails using a hand drill or hammer to drive nails into your hard drive to destroy the device. Though many try to use this as a DIY method, the main issue lies with ensuring that all data has been completely eliminated.
There is also the danger of flying sharp pieces that can release toxic materials into the environment. Therefore, this method of hard drive shredding is better left to the professionals and should never be done independently.
Why is Hard Drive Shredding in Atlanta Essential for Your Organization?
There are various reasons why hard drive shredding is essential for your organization.
1. Complies with Privacy Laws
Just as we’re compliant with media destruction and confidentiality, information that is located on electronic media should be destroyed to comply with government privacy laws. Complying with government privacy laws includes hard drives and other electronics such as printers, mobile phones, disks, and more.
2. Protects Sensitive Information
If you’re a business owner, you understand how important it is to protect your sensitive data. As an owner, you remain at risk of data breaches every time you improperly dispose of your hard drive. Hard drives continue to remain a significant liability and continue to be the reason for many lawsuits.
If you don’t use a trusted professional when disposing of your hard drive, you are not only putting your company at risk but also your customers and your reputation.
3. Prevents Electronic Waste from Entering Our Landfills
Hard drive shredding and recycling continue to remain an environmentally friendly approach; however, many untrusted services will resell your hard drives and for more money and transport them to an unprotected location. When contacting a hard drive shredding service, you will rest comfortably knowing that all of your hard drive has been shredded and recycled correctly.
Not only is hard drive shredding an eco-friendly approach, but it also ensures that your data has been safely eliminated and destroyed.
Eco-Friendly Hard Drive Shredding in Atlanta
Since climate change and global warming have become a focus point over the years, it’s left a tremendous impact on how organizations recycle their electronics. Due to harmful materials, there are now laws that have been created by the government that disclose how to properly recycle a computer or hard drive.
According to United Nations University, hard drive recycling and other electronic recycling can help fight global warming. With global warming to consider, there are various eco-friendly hard drive precautions you can take and apply to your business.
- Donate your hard drives
- Use a certified recycling center
- Repair and resell your storage devices
Is it Safe to Use a Hard Drive Shredding Professional?
Using a hard drive shredding professional service is one of the most effective ways to ensure your data gets completely destroyed. A reputable professional will ensure that they’re using proper methods and techniques and remain a trustworthy business.
A hard drive shredding service that is trustworthy will ensure the following:
- Store your hard drive in a tamper-proof storage container
- Use in-house hard drive shredding services
- Use professional-grade shredding devices
- Have trained professionals within their organization
- Provide a certificate of destruction after the hard drive shredding is completed
Beyond Surplus Hard Drive Services
At Beyond Surplus, if you’re considering hard drive shredding in Atlanta, we can pick up your hard drives and safely transport them to our warehouse. At our secure warehouse, we will eliminate and shred all of your hard drives and record serial numbers.
Once our hard drive shredding is completed, you will then be emailed a “Certificate of Destruction” that includes the date, type of information destroyed, serial number, and the chosen method of destruction. With this information included, all compliance needs will be met.
Hard Drive Shredding in Atlanta: FAQ
1. How do I absolutely destroy my hard drive?
The best ways to destroy your hard drive are by hard drive shredding or degaussing.
2. How do I shred data from my hard drive?
To shred data from your hard drive, you can contact Beyond Surplus about hard drive recycling services.
3. Can a shredded hard drive be recovered?
No, when a hard drive is shredded effectively, there is no way for someone to recover your data.
4. Does drilling a hole in a hard drive destroy it?
The heat from a drill can cause damage; however, if any pieces are left intact, this leaves your data at risk of being stolen.
5. Should you physically destroy a hard drive?
Destroying a hard drive physically would be considered a do-it-yourself approach, however this isn’t a reliable method. A better option would be to contact a hard drive shredding service.
6. Can I destroy a hard drive with a hammer?
Although it may seem like a cost-effective option, destroying your hard drive with a hammer leaves the risk of traces of data left behind.
