Good Grapevine
My grapes are bursting with info and flavour for you to devour!

If only people understood how hard it can be to totally delete data from a hard drive they would really be a lot more careful, especially in these days of identity theft and identity fraud. Data recovery companies are well skilled at restoring data, but then so are the computer criminal specialists, and if all you have done is a simple reformat or deletion then your personal data can be much more exposed than you would like to believe.

So what lengths do we need to go to in order to ensure that our data is securely removed?

The answer, in short, is that there is no easy method of permanently removing data from a storage media. This does not make it impossible, but does mean that you will normally have to obtain expensive software to help in the task.

Data can only be considered completely erased when it has been overwritten several times, each time using a different method. The level of overwriting usually considered to guarantee that data has been successfully erased is a seven pass overwriting method using software or manual processes that adhere to the DoD 5220.22-M standard for data erasure.

There is software available that can help in the task but many people prefer to leave data elimination to professional services as they will at least understand the exact processes that need to be followed to ensure complete elimination of any data and the chance of it falling into the wrong hands.

Apart from software and manual deletion there are more robust methods of data disposal which is commonally know as data destruction. This involves the complete destruction of the disks to the point where recovery would be impossible.

While it would not be recommended DIY data destruction is an option you could try but this would mean that you would need to totally dismantle the drive, remove the platters and physically damaging as much of the disk as possible including destroying (shattering ) the disk as well.

There will always be those that are less educated in the filed of data recovery that will have you believe that simply formatting your drive or even conducting a low level format will do the trick. Sadly this is simply not the case. Another common myth is that reinstalling the operating system will suffice but that will remain the myth that it is.

Not all data will needs to be totally destroyed using the above methods and if you are happy that none of your data is personal or sensitive (both business or personal) then simply dispose of it in an enviromentally responsibly way, but if you are at all unsure don’t take the risk.

Your local data recovery company will be able to advise you on safe hard drive recovery data disposal methods and will probably have a local service. data recovery and data disposal should always be left to professional operators who are happy to certify their work.