Cleaning out the old makes way for the new—but for too many businesses, bringing in new equipment means exposing confidential data, in part because many people don’t know how to wipe a hard drive properly.
Why Hard Drives Must be Disposed of Properly
Like all technology, hard drives don’t last forever. You’ll probably have to swap out old computers for newer, faster versions every few years. Trashing, recycling or donating a computer that still contains an unwiped hard drive is like leaving all your business’s files on the sidewalk for anyone to find. Doing an incomplete job of wiping the drive can make all that data accessible to whoever’s lucky enough to get their hands on the drive next.
You know the “why” of wiping your hard drives before letting them leave your possession. As for how to wipe a hard drive, it’s not as straightforward. There’s one absolutely permanent way to destroy a hard drive, plus a few DIY methods that may or may not work.
How to Wipe a Hard Drive Yourself (in Theory)
No matter what method you use for wiping hard drives, the first step is always to make sure you’ve backed up whatever data you want to save from the drive.
First, you can try using software to erase the drive. There are a number of downloadable programs online that claim to wipe hard drives. Some risk is inherent here since you have to trust that what you’re downloading will truly and permanently wipe your drive. Your computer may also have a program installed that will overwrite the drive, basically covering the current data with new data. (This isn’t completely foolproof since the original data is still buried on the drive.)
Physical destruction is another option for rendering a hard drive unusable—but brute force isn’t necessarily effective here. Data is stored on spinning magnetic platters within the drive. Breaking a platter in half won’t destroy the data stored there. Drilling holes in the drive or attacking it with a sledgehammer may be satisfying but won’t actually wipe the drive either. You could try holding powerful magnets to the drive, which could theoretically corrupt the data stored within. But even if you have access to very strong magnets and can disassemble the drive to get the magnets close to the platters, using magnets probably won’t work to wipe a hard drive.
The risk with any DIY method is that you’ll think you’ve permanently destroyed data but it will still be retrievable for a hacker. Think of a parent setting parental controls on a gaming system for their tech-savvy kids. As long as the kids know more about how to navigate the system than the parent, they’ll probably find ways past those controls without the parent knowing. You can try wiping or destroying your own hard drive, but you can’t know for sure that it’s safe from a motivated data thief with advanced skills.
How to Wipe a Hard Drive Permanently
Because the basic methods of hard drive destruction aren’t completely foolproof, the only 100 percent effective way to destroy the data stored on a hard drive is to destroy the drive itself. That means shredding. Shredding obsolete drives gives you complete confidence that whatever was once stored on those platters is gone forever.
Shredding may seem extreme. After all, couldn’t you just bury an old drive in a trash can and take the chance that no one will find it? When you’re debating how to wipe a hard drive, weigh the risks of a potential data breach against the effort required to have the drive shredded.
The greater the damage that would be done by your data being compromised, the more strongly I would urge you to shred your drives. In your personal life, you may be willing to take a chance by wiping your personal hard drive before upgrading to a new computer. But if you’re responsible for sensitive employee and/or client data, if you’re accountable to investors, or if you’re subject to industry regulations around data security, it is absolutely worth taking precautions when getting rid of an obsolete hard drive. Protecting your confidential material isn’t something you want to take any chances with. If you’re ever asked to account for how a breach involving a drive happened, you won’t want to explain that you took a DIY approach to data destruction.
Northeast Data Destruction can help with all your data destruction needs, including hard drive shredding. We’ll even pick up your drives (following all COVID safety protocols) to make it effortless for you to protect your data security. Contact me with any questions.
FAQs
Because the basic methods of hard drive destruction aren't completely foolproof, the only 100 percent effective way to destroy the data stored on a hard drive is to destroy the drive itself. That means shredding.
How do you completely wipe a hard drive so no data can be recovered? ›
Reset your PC
- Open the Start menu and select Settings.
- Choose the System category from the menu on the left, then scroll down and select Recovery.
- Click Reset PC.
- Select Remove everything.
- Choose how you'd like to reinstall Windows, then click Change settings.
- Switch the Clean data?
Go to Settings > System > Recovery and click Reset PC. When asked what you want to erase, select Remove everything. Choose Local reinstall to reinstall Windows from this device, since it will run faster than the cloud download. If that doesn't work, select the Cloud download.
How do I wipe my hard drive before disposing of my computer? ›
In Windows 11, go to Settings > System > Recovery and select Reset this PC under Recovery options. Click the Reset PC button, then choose Remove everything.
Does destroying the hard drive erase everything? ›
Destroying a hard drive is just like tearing up a piece of paper. Once the destruction is complete, the information is still on the paper. That is to say it's not going to be removed by this method.
Should I destroy my hard drive before recycling? ›
Erasing a computer hard drive before recycling will help to prevent your data from being stolen. Destroying the data will guarantee that it is safe. You can destroy the drive yourself; you can use any of these three methods to destroy the drive platters.
Does a full format erase all data? ›
Formatting a hard drive with full erasure does not necessarily damage the hard drive itself. However, it does permanently erase all the data on the hard drive, including the operating system and all installed software.
What is the best software to wipe a hard drive? ›
Darik's Boot And Nuke (aka DBAN) is the best free data destruction software I've ever used. It's an open-source project and a great tool that should certainly be your first choice if you're wanting to completely erase a hard drive. However, you should know that it doesn't support SSDs.
Does factory reset wipe HDD? ›
It's important to know what a factory reset actually does, though. It puts all applications back into their original state and removes anything that wasn't there when the computer left the factory. That means user data from the applications will also be deleted. However, that data will still live on the hard drive.
Should I destroy the hard drive before recycling a laptop? ›
Similar to a desktop, the hard drive of your laptop also needs to be properly wiped and destroyed prior to recycling. Carefully remove the hard drive or, if physically destroying it is not possible, use data shredding software. There are lots of options available readily online.
This wiping process not only deletes all files in the typical method, but also painstakingly overwrites every bit of data in the drive to make file recovery near-impossible. Since this deletion is permanent, the first thing you'll want to do is transfer anything worth keeping over to an external drive.
Is it safe to just throw out a hard drive? ›
Research has shown that even if hard drives and other devices are obsolete or broken down, simply tossing or recycling them is a huge security risk. Last year one of the largest studies done to date with second-hand computer devices found digital data on almost half of the used devices.
Can a hard drive be permanently erased? ›
Degaussing a modern hard drive will also erase the drive's firmware, rendering the drive completely useless. If you want to erase a hard drive, but also want it to work properly after being erased, you must use data destruction software (option 1, above) instead.
Will submerging a hard drive in water destroy it? ›
But water alone will not destroy a hard drive or delete its data. While water can damage a hard drive's electronics, the data itself is stored magnetically. It will remain there on the platters, which is why professionals can still recover information from a water damaged hard drive.
What happens when you destroy a hard drive? ›
You'd think that if a hard drive is littered with holes that the data will be completely destroyed and inaccessible, but this isn't the case. Although your computer may not be able to read it, all the intact portions of the drive will be retrievable by data thieves.
What does destroying a hard drive do? ›
Degaussing hard drives can be the first (or only) step in data destruction. The degaussing process erases data, changing the magnetic domain in which data is stored. Using magnets, it scrambles stored information so it can not be retrieved.
Can a destroyed hard drive be recovered? ›
If the hard drive is physically damaged, such as from a fire or flood, then it is likely that the data will be unrecoverable. However, if the hard drive is only logically damaged, such as from a virus or software corruption, then there is a good chance that the data can be recovered.
Should you remove the hard drive from a computer before selling? ›
If that's a significant concern—maybe you're planning to sell the device to a stranger on eBay—go ahead and remove the hard drive, says Richard Fisco, who oversees electronics testing for Consumer Reports. After all, a hacker can't break into a hard drive that's not there.
Like all technology, hard drives don’t last forever. You’ll probably have to swap out old computers for newer, faster versions every few years. Trashing, recycling or donating a computer that still contains an unwiped hard drive is like leaving all your business’s files on the sidewalk for anyone to find. Doing an incomplete job of wiping the drive can make all that data accessible to whoever’s lucky enough to get their hands on the drive next.