Just my 2 cents worth, I would go a little further, as far as the Single Admin Account. I would create a new Admin Account, login with it then remove all other accounts, being sure to select Delete All Files. And more writes will shorten the life of the drive.

Securis is 19 Years Old!

It can be recovered easily using any recovery software, so removing the data in that manner will not be safe. Yes, it is highly recommended that you wipe or erase your hard drive prior to recycling. It’s important to remove any and all traces of your own personal information from the drive. Regardless of whether it’s going to an electronics recycler or for eventual reuse in some other way, it’s not uncommon to hear of personal information exposed because it was left behind on a discarded drive.

Degausser machines aren’t the only way to degauss magnetic media. Oersted units are often abbreviated to “Oe” when referencing a magnetic field. Magnetic mines were able to detect that a ship was overhead because of the magnetic field that the steel ships produce.

Read more about Nsa listed degausser here.

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However, before I dispose of it I want to make sure that the data can’t be recovered by destroying the disk. A degausser will disrupt the magnetic forces of a hard disk,rendering data impossible to capture and making the drive useless.

Eighth-Grader Saves End-of-Life Electronics from Landfills

In an increasingly digital world, you are becoming more and more susceptible to data breaches. Along with the inexorable march of technology, and the creation and consumption of new electronic devices, the… How many times have you upgraded your smartphone over the last 5 years? Are you in the market looking for a good e-waste recycling partner?

Scan hard drives after they’ve been degaussed or physically damaged. If your organization is security-aware or has to maintain security compliance regulations and survive audits, then it is good to invest in hard drive destruction tracking software. The simplest method for keeping track of erased drives is to just label every hard drive after you degauss it. Over the years, the amount of coercivity of hard drives has increased, creating the need for a powerful future-proof degausser.

Most drives these days are largely held together with torx screws, and will come apart with varying levels of difficulty. Simply remove the top cover, remove the platters from the central spindle. Taking a pocket knife, nail file, screwdriver, whatever, have fun scoring both surfaces of each platter. I cannot speak to how recoverable the data is afterwards, but it is probably sufficient. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that while most desktop hard drive platters are metal, some are glass. According to many in the information security field, including the US National Security Agency , shredding of HDDs is not the best method of destroying information contained in the drive. This is why the NSA, the world’s recognized leader in cyber security, requires that its Top Secret and above data residing on HDDs that are non-functional or obsolete be either degaussed or incinerated.

It is only 3 mths old and recently had motherboard replaced. If I do, will I be liable for any charges if I leave no OS. I do not have any disks so wouldnt be able to reinstall windows and not sure I would know how. Dban nukes all of the drives attached to your computer, so it would also wipe out your hard drive. A good program for wiping an external drive such as a pen drive is CCleaner. On CCleaner’s tool menu there is a function to wipe an entire drive.