Re: What is the universal (world wide) understanding behind degaussing harddisks?
Michael Stone writes:
> The main reasons to look at degaussing or other methods of destruction
> are 1) for extremely sensitive data, 2) for drives which are broken
> (it's quite possible for something to be too broken to overwrite, but
> not too broken to extract data) or 3) because it's
> quicker/easier/cheaper to destroy a bunch of hard disks than to erase
> *and verify*.
Degaussing is for nine-track tapes that you intend to reuse. If the
disks contain extremely sensitive data grind them up or melt them. If
not just erase and be happy (if they're broken scrap them for parts and
materials).
The military puts old drives containing sensitive data through a grinder
mostly because two people have to sign a document certifying that they
saw the data destroyed. You can't see bits being overwritten.
--
John Hasler
jhasler@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA
Reply to: