Hard drives are destroyed only with a hard disk shredder.
Colleagues of ours have devices that drill holes and squeeze holes in hard drives.
Then there is a Maxx Eguard – a kind of mechanical cheese slicer that shaves off pieces of a hard disk, as slow as it is unreliable.
Furthermore, we have seen glittering DEGAUSSERS with arcane rays, which I personally think is more like something for Yomanda or something.
I wrote a blog about this: WHY A DEGAUSSER NEVER WORKS.
Actually it is very simple: if you want to destroy hard drives on location you have to chop them into very small pieces, you have to do that with a shredder and das a very big heavy thing.
Other all other devices just work badly.
IT Recycling uses a really industrial installation built into a truck. This shreds hard disks into 9mm pieces in about 3 seconds.
So you actually have two parameters, the SPEED and the SIZE of the chips. The speed and the size of the chips together make how much power, say power, a mobile shredder needs.
Speed is super important.
If you have a machine that only does 100 disks per hour, then with a very small stack of disks, you’re already working all day.
In particular, the Maxx Eguard is known to be extremely slow.
Our shredder has a speed of 1000 disks per hour, which is the fastest in Europe.
Then the size of the shreds. You would think that for mechanical disks a shred size of 3cm or fine is fine, after all, the disk is really completely broken. This is not so. Data can still be extracted from large chunks of shredded mechanical hard disk. For mechanical hard disk, the requirement left and right is 11mm or smaller. IT Recycling shredded on site with 9mm.
That 9mm is also really necessary for backup tapes because if you shred in larger pieces then you will be left with very long strands of tape in the trash.
Read more about destroying TAPES here .
For small data carriers like USBs and cell phones , credit cards etc it makes sense that you want to shred into small pieces.
Make sure you know what you want to destroy and what you want disposed of.
We regularly visit customers, to destroy data on site, and then at the very last minute we have to decide and review what all needs to go into the hard drive shredder.
Or we are in the process of destroying data and along the way colleagues come by with boxes and boxes of phones, tapes and tablets which then all have to go into the shredder at the last minute.
We see the same thing with the computer waste we take with us after a shredding job.
Often it is already neatly organized and ready to go, but we also see that the written-off computer junk still has to come out of every nook and cranny.
For us this is not such a problem but for the customer it is just not wise to really decide at the last moment what to keep and what not to keep.
Better to make sure before we come that you know for yourself what you want to keep and what has to go.
Documentation must be in order!
Before ordering data carriers to be destroyed on site, I think it would be helpful to ask carefully what kind of documentation you will get with it.
I know that everyone who has anything to do with old computers and data destruction immediately shouts that the customers get a destruction certificate.
But what does it actually say?
And do you only get a certificate?
That’s not worth much if you don’t also get a list of serial numbers.
And is anywhere described how to proceed and who is responsible if things do go wrong and data leaks out?
It might still be a good idea – before you order – to ask for samples of the documents you get after an on-site data destruction.
And pay attention to the certificate, anyone can make a certificate, but it should at least say:
1. The way things were destroyed
2. In what size this is done this is described as a standard DIN 66399 – the standard EA DMS has been abolished and defunct by now. Read more about DIN 66399 here
3. Who is responsible.
I really don’t think it would be unwise to have a lawyer look at the documents. If you work for an international organization, you can ask IT Recycling for English-language documentation.
Here you can see what documentation IT Recycling provides in the event of a data destruction: DOCUMENTATION IT RECYCLING.
Get your computer waste disposed of right away.
If they are there anyway? Make a deal for your old computer junk right away, but be sure to agree in advance if they will charge something for it. With us at IT Recycling, disposal of computer waste combined with shredding of hard disks and other data carriers is always free of charge. Want to know more about free disposal of computer waste? Then look here: COMPUTER WASTE
Ensure that shredded hard drives and other materials are disposed of neatly.
Well that honestly doesn’t seem more than normal to me.
But I have met quite a few customers who had a whole load of shredded chips lying around and had no idea what to do with them.
disposing of the shredded chips seems standard, but make sure you make arrangements for this.
Who will be visiting?
Be critical!
You have hard drives shredded on site, you do that because confidential data is on them, of course. And because you really want to be absolutely sure that nothing goes wrong and that no data leaks out. Then it seems rather important to me that you do business with a company that is well known. Look for reviews on the Internet.
Also important, of course, is the people who come to your place and do the final work. At IT Recycling, all drivers have signed a confidentiality agreement and have a VOG ( certificate of good conduct).
WEEELABEX : certification for absolute top quality
Since a few years in the Netherlands all companies involved in computer waste, data destruction, buying up old computers etc etc must have a WEEELABEX certification.
The WEEELABEX is a rather strict standard only the very best companies in the Netherlands have this certification.
Hence the rather strange and long name: Waste of Electronic and electric equipment, label of excellence.
It is a European standard created to prevent proliferation, export of computer waste and amateurism.
For the companies that have computer waste and want to destroy data, it has now become really super easy to choose from the very best, because you can see on the Internet who has WEEELABEX.
So then you can be sure that you are dealing with a professional company that works completely according to legal frameworks and transparent.
The list of WEEELABEX companies can be found here : www.weeelabex.org