What is the best way to safely dispose of hard drives and SSDs?
Best practices involve using data erasure software to securely overwrite data on hard drives and SSDs, including the hidden areas and remapped sectors. Erasure is done per government standards such as NIST, DOD, and many more. Erasure software is used before the drives are transported to equipment for physical destruction to eliminate the possibility of data being intercepted during transport.Physical destruction of hard disk drives can be done with a degausser that uses a powerful magnetic field, which erases not only the data but removes the servo tracks, making the media unusable. The most permanent and final destruction solution involves the use of granulators, also known as shredders. These machines rip, tear, or smash a hard drive or SSD into pieces so small that data cannot be recovered from the media or memory chips.
Can I request the erasure of my personal data?
The secure way to erase your personal data from a device you own is to use data erasure software to remove all data from the hard disk drive or SSD. Requests for Ontrack to remove personal data we have collected about you can be sent to Ontrack American Data Privacy Queries, Attn: Jason Davison, 8201 Greensboro Drive, Suite 300, McLean, VA 22102-3810 per the Ontrack Privacy Policy.
Counter to what you usually do. What is the best way in your opinion to make sure the data isn’t recoverable?
Make sure all the NAND chips are broken for destruction or use an erasure software that has been validated by Ontrack.
Does data erasure remove files and clean the drive?
Data erasure is the removal of data from a storage device such that it cannot be recovered. Data erasure software repeatedly writes a pattern of 1's and 0's over all of the data locations on a hard drive or SSD so that the original data is no longer accessible. The software also removes all data from temporary locations. File erasure software allows the user to target all instances of specific files to be erased, instead of wiping all data from the entire storage media.
How do I erase data from an iPhone without an internet connection?
- Download and install mobile eraser software on a computer.
- Run the eraser software. Connect the iPhone to the computer with a connector cable (Lightning to USB is typical).
- Power the iPhone on and unlock the phone.
- Locate the iPhone from the erasure software running on the computer.
- Select erase and let the software run until it states that the erase process has completed.
How do I erase data on a computer without using the internet?
- Download and install data erasure software on a functioning computer.
- Create an ISO image of the erasure executable and copy it to a removable USB flash drive.
- Plug the USB flash drive into the computer to be erased. It will boot up and begin erasing the device.
- Remove the USB drive when finished as the ISO image will run only once per license.
How do I perform a complete data erasure?
Best practices involve using data erasure software to securely overwrite data on hard drives and SSDs, including the hidden areas and remapped sectors. Erasure is done per government standards such as NIST, DOD, and many more.Erasure software is used before the drives are transported to equipment for physical destruction to eliminate the possibility of data being intercepted during transport. Physical destruction on hard disk drives can be done with a degausser that uses a powerful magnetic field, which erases not only the data but removes the servo tracks, making the media unusable. The most permanent and final destruction solution involves the use of granulators, also known as shredders. These machines rip, tear, or smash a hard drive or SSD into pieces so small that data cannot be recovered from the media or memory chips.