How To Destroy A Hard Drive

If you think that to destroy a hard drive starts by formatting it through your computer settings; I can tell you that you’re wrong. And if you genuinely believe in this school of thought, then this blog is specifically for you. Sadly, deleting all the files from a hard drive, doesn’t erase it for good. It just appears to you that it’s been done. Over and over again security experts have demonstrated that retrieving people’s information from hard drives that have supposedly been wiped, has been very simple.

So if wiping it doesn’t work, how else would you clean a hard drive of its contents permanently?

1. You have to remove it from your computer. In some cases this could include taking the casing off and in the case of a laptop it would simply be a matter of unscrewing a few screws.

2. So you’ve got you’re hard drive. What we actually need to get hold of is the metal platter inside.

3. You plug in the hard drive so it has some juice and can power up. This will allow the metal platter inside to start spinning.

4. As it spins you hold a screwdriver to it, purposely allowing it to scratch the entire platter as it spins round

5. After it’s all scratched up, you take a hammer to it and after that smash it into pieces.

We think if this is the route for you, then the below video may be extremely useful. It assumes the first 3 steps in the above step by step guide.

If you probably didn’t realise how involved the process was, you may be thinking to yourself – Gosh!

There is of course another option. But before I tell you the easiest option in the world, I’d like you to pause and answer to yourself just one question.

If the answer is even one file, whether it’s a family photo, a bank statement, client details or just a plain old, scanned copy of your passport – then destroying them should be a priority.

So, here’s how we can help. We of course could advise you to do the above. Bash the hell out of your hard drive and destroy the metal platter yourself. Or you could just call us. We would make sure it ends up completely and totally shredded. What better way to destroy a hard drive than to have it professionally shredded. We data shred everything from external hard drives, old mobile phones, PCs to items as small and including USB sticks.

With more and more data breaches occurring on almost a weekly basis, shredding your old devices should be a priority.