Disposing of computers? How about just some random old hard drives or thumb drives? Do you need to do anything special with them or just toss them in the trash? This Tek Tip we will look at ways that you can dispose of such hardware. Some will be free, some will be DIY (and slightly fun) while others depending on the type of data that was on the device may cost you a little bit of money. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and get ready.
So a couple lines of clarification before we get started. Depending on the type of scenario the hard drive or thumb drive was used will depend on what type of requirements there are to wipe any data off of the device. If it is for personal, then a lot of the free tools out there will be more than adequate to do the job before you toss or donate any hardware to a local charity or your in-laws. If you are business however and you housed client sensitive information on those drives (think HIPPA, InfoSec, DoD kind of stuff), then there are some different requirements that you need to pay attention to.
OK, personal computers or computers that did not contain other client data then there are plenty of free tools out there. Tools like DBAN (free for personal use) or the Disk Utility tool in Mac’s is easy to use also. For a small fee you could get Parted Magic. All of these are good tools and they are easy to use as well. For some corporate non-sensitive data machines these tools will also work for you. Just make sure that you know what the machine was used for before you invest either time or money into this project. What about little SD cards that are used in phones or some game systems. Well there is a tool for that also. SD Association has that tool and it is a free one to boot. Speaking of phones and smart devices, unfortunately there are not many tools other than the built in factory reset options through your devices administrative device settings section. The key thing to remember here is that if you have an SD card (memory expansion card) installed on the device, remember to take it out. The reset does not always wipe that memory card.
Remember I promised fun? Have you got any pent up Covid aggression? Well the fun part is once you have used the above software on those drives you can take the drive out of the computer and get out your favorite hammer and drill. Ready for it? Now drill holes through that drive, hammer the heck out of it. Beat it to heck and back. Swing away like it is a pinata filled with candy. WHEW!!! Didn’t that feel great! Got a sledgehammer? Even better! 😊
Now for corporate used devices. In some cases, honestly it is best to contract this out to organizations that do this for their job. They have not only the software but also hardware that can dispose of hard drives. The hardware devices they use are high dollar shredders. Think paper shredder on some 10x steroids. Do not get your hand caught in it! Companies like Securis offer these services. They require you to get a quote from them though. White Canyon Software is another. They do offer a free trial but again, you have to work with a salesperson to even get a quote on their software offerings. So wait, backup up. What is all this talk about DoD standards you might ask. Well those standards are a means of wiping data from a drive before you even physically destroy it. It is a three-step process. First the drive is written to with zeros, then ones and finally random data. This standard is called DoD 5220.22-M. Here are two references for this standard. National Industrial Security Program specifically Chapter 5 section 3 (section 314) and 7 (sections for Destruction) as well as all of chapter 8 and parts of chapter 9 section 4 regarding COMSEC and if that was not enough just to make sure you may want to read chapter 11 for Miscellaneous Information (for just a lite read) & a Wiki site. Is your head spinning enough, are you dizzy from all the language used? Thought so. Therefore, large companies and even some smaller ones contract this service out to other companies that certify the wiping and destruction of data from drives for them. Oh, and not to mention those same companies will also do paper shredding.
Need help figuring this out? Are you confused yet or overwhelmed? Not to worry, The Tek is here to help out. Give us a call, shot us an email and we will certainly do all we can to help you out.