Hard drive destruction ‘crucial’

Hard drive destruction ‘crucial’

Excerpt: The only way to stop fraudsters stealing information from old computer hard drives is by destroying them completely, a study has found.

Okay, first, this isn’t entirely true. We are well versed in computer forensics. There are programs (some free) that will completely erase all the data from the hard drive using a U.S. Department of Defense approved method. Personally, we suggest going that route. Hard drives can be made of some tough materials and smashing them up may be impossible for some people. Also, there is always a risk of hurting yourself from broken parts flying off the hard drive. Plus, if any of the hard drive platters remain intact, data may be able to be recovered from them.

For securely wiping a hard drive, we use Darik’s Boot And Nuke (http://www.dban.org/). It’s free. You can create a boot floppy or CD that can completely wipe all data from the hard drive. Before getting rid of any old hard drive, we suggest you use this.