On Thu, Jan 09, 2020 at 09:22:09AM +0200, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
On Jo, 09 ian 20, 17:03:57, Ben Caradoc-Davies wrote:On 09/01/2020 16:45, David Wright wrote: > No, don't mix degaussers and disks. If you want to reuse them, they're > likely too damaged. If you're concerned about data recovery, then they're > unlikely to be erased enough to prevent it. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing>: "For certain forms of computer data storage, however, such as modern hard disk drives and some tape drives, degaussing renders the magnetic media completely unusable and damages the storage system."unusable" is not the same as "all data is completely erased".
An old school tape deguasser (long conveyer belt with magnets underneath) may not have a sufficiently strong magnetic field to affect a modern hard drive at all. Or, it may prevent the drive from starting up due to destruction of the outermost tracks but not destroy data on inner tracks. There are products with much stronger magnetic fields which are specifically designed to destroy hard drive data. They're pretty quick and easy to use--much more so than hooking drives up and overwriting them. The biggest drawback is the difficulty in verifying that all data is destroyed. The most useful niche I can think of for them these days is if you need to return a broken hard drive that's been replaced under warranty and want to erase the data. In many (most?) cases it's likely that the "keep the drive" warranty option and physical destruction is cheaper and easier to verify.