How to Completely Wipe Hard Drive - Data DestructionSometimes simply deleting files isn't good enough. Here are a few ways you can wipe hard drive data and keep it from prying eyes.
When you get rid of sensitive paper documents, it's a good idea to shred or burn them to help protect your privacy and prevent identity theft. Similarly, it is important to erase your personal or sensitive information from computers (desktop, laptop, or tablet) and other devices (mobile, smartphone, gaming console) before you dispose of them.
When you delete a file, it is often not deleted. If you use Windows, it is moved to a protected system folder and shown in the Recycle Bin. Even when you empty the Recycle Bin, the file is not deleted. The area on the hard drive where the data resides is marked as free so that the operating system sees it as available space, but the data is still there. With special software, you can recover this data and view personal information.
There are many data recovery techniques that you can use to undelete or recover the deleted data, and to prevent this, you must perform some additional tasks.
File Shredding to Wipe Hard Drive
The most common technique is digital shredding. This process does not delete the file, but it overwrites the data with a series of 0 and 1. Firstly, it writes the data with all zeros, then all ones, and then a random sequence of 1 and 0. Writing all ones and all zeros aligns the polarity of the physical data bits on the hardware. Random writing eliminates any chance of the data being recovered.
There are several free programs that can perform this task, and they all function in pretty much the same way.
Hard Drive Shredding - Wipe Hard Drive By Overwriting Data
You can also perform shredding on an entire hard drive, except that instead of erasing a file or collecting files, it destroys the data on all sectors of all tracks on every hard drive platter. Again, there are several free hard drive erasure tools available and offer various levels of guarantee on the effectiveness of the process. It should be noted that this process can take considerable time on larger drives and should not be used on SSDs as the process may damage the memory or lower the drive's life expectancy.
Physically Wipe Hard Drive - Drastic But Permanent Way to Wipe Hard Drive
Suppose you have data that you do not want anyone to find (such as MI6, CIA, and FBI mainframe hard drives). In that case, the best option is to render the data on the hard drive useless physically. You can employ various methods to achieve this task, including dismantling the drive and scratching the platters with a screwdriver, smashing them with a sledgehammer or using a blowtorch to burn the surface and warp the platters.
