When data is no longer needed, how it is disposed of is a vital part of any information security strategy. If hard drive data is not correctly wiped, it can lead to severe breaches of data protection and privacy policies. Due to the vast amounts of digital media that build up over time, effective information destruction practices are a necessary part of all businesses, saving time and money, as well as legal costs. 

If you wish to recycle or retire a computer or mobile device, performing a factory reset is not enough to guarantee the deletion of all your secure data. In these instances, companies have three options to choose from: overwriting, degaussing, and physical destruction. Many organisations find it best to consider multiple methods to guarantee the secure destruction of their hard drive data.

Overwriting

The most common way to address data remanence is to overwrite the media with new data. This relatively low-cost option is easy to use and can be achieved through software.

When carried out correctly, a single pass is sufficient for removing your data, ensuring all the different regions of data storage are addressed. With WipeDrive 9, you can verify a single pass for a 100% success rate, providing you with the assurance that your data is completely unrecoverable. Any success rate below 100% is failed, with Wipedrive no licences are taken and the software can be re-run.

Overwriting is only a viable option when the storage media is not damaged. A unique feature of WipeDrive is that the software can test a hard drive before it attempts to wipe the data. A wipe will only be carried out if the hard drive is in good condition, anything less and the system will fail it. As the only product in the market offering this feature, the WipeDrive is a great way to save your time and money. 

In some cases, however, overwriting may not be able to guarantee the removal of data from inaccessible regions such as host-protected areas. When considering which software to use for your data disposal, it must support secure erase and TRIM comment. These features can gain access into hidden areas on the hard drives; hard drives will always have parts that are not visible to the customer but are shown to the software. These areas are used for storage without your knowledge and could contain sensitive data. With TRIM comment, these hidden areas will also be remapped.  

Degaussing

In simple terms, degaussing a hard drive is the removal of its magnetic field using a degausser. When applied to magnetic storage media, a degausser can quickly and effectively remove an entire storage medium. The data is completely unrecoverable, making it appealing for dealing with highly sensitive data, although there is a catch.

Degausser products are a significant expense. They are cumbersome machines which can have strong electromagnetic fields, which can cause collateral damage to vulnerable equipment nearby. Moreover, a degausser causes irreversible damage to a hard drive; they destroy the servo control data in the drive, which once damaged, makes the hard drive unusable. 

Physical Destruction

Disk shredding and melting are a couple of examples of methods corporations can take to render their physical storage media unusable and unreadable. Physical destruction provides an organisation with the assurance of absolute destruction of data. However, this is heavily dependent on the effectiveness of the physical destruction methods used; which begs the question, was the medium completely destroyed? This is without mentioning the worry of data theft while computer hardware is stored and awaiting physical destruction.

Many high-end corporations and government entities, therefore, use a combination of overwriting and physical destruction or degaussing to confidently and securely delete their data. 

Deleting Data off a Device

Many people believe that reinstalling an operating system or formatting a hard drive removes all your data off a device, but this is not the case. Even deleting your files and folders does not mean that they cannot be recovered and reinstalled when you retire a device. Removing your data by these methods instead means that all your data is still easily accessible with a few widely-available tools. 

This recovery is possible as the methods used to delete your data only affect the directory reference to the data. Your data may no longer be visible on your device, but that does not mean it is not lurking within the hard drive of your computer. This hidden information is commonly known as data remanence. 

Ever wondered how your device can restore deleted files from the ‘recycling bin?’ — it is the same principle, the files were never really removed in the first place. 

When we attempt to delete a file from our documents, the data will leave physical imprints (also referred to as shadows) on your hard disk. Unfortunately, some thorough methods of erasing data are not water-tight. The hard reality of this is that skilled computer hackers can recover these files and could access your confidential data. 

However, with WipeDrive, you can securely and efficiently delete your data in the knowledge that you’ll never be able to get your data back. Get your computer storage back, by confidently deleting hard drive data securely using a trusted and known brand of ‘wipe drive.’

Using WipeDrive

WipeDrive ensures your data is completely erased and unrecoverable by using military-grade, wiping technology. Wipedrive overwrites your data multiple times using the Department of Defence (DOD) approved wipe patterns. These patterns are guaranteed to make your data completely unrecoverable.

WipeDrive is the market leader in secure data destruction, and it is not just limited to the deletion of data from computers. This system can also be used on mobile devices, hard drives and removable devices.

As the world’s most highly-certified hard drive wiping software, WipeDrive gives you the peace of mind when it comes to erasing all the data on your storage drive including data, programs, and the operating system.

WipeDrive 9 is a socially responsible way of recycling and retiring a computer.

For the latest edition of WipeDrive 9, we offer bulk and other discounts to suit the needs of our client. For more information, contact one of our sales representatives directly on 0345 340 3105 or request a trial on our website today. If you ever need any help with WipeDrive, do not hesitate to contact us. Our team is always on standby to help get your wipe underway.