The theme ofpermanent deletion of data it is not trivial: many companies that abandon old hard disks to migrate to newer, more performing systems often find themselves in difficulty. How can confidential data previously contained on hard drives be prevented from being recoverable in some way? There are many cases of companies that have seen part of their information spread to the four winds following a disaster unauthorized recovery of data from storage media now decommissioned.
Garner is a company specialized in data elimination which, with its new product, aims to make the process of disassembling and “zeroing” the contents of hard disks simpler and faster.
DiskMantler destroys any hard disk: here’s how it works
Garner technicians have released a video showing the operationin practice, of an instrument such as Disk Mantle. It is an advanced machine that subjects it to strong conditions vibrations the hard disks inserted inside it, in order to prevent its functioning.
Not only. Disk Mantle It completely separates all the individual components of the hard drive, taking 60-120 seconds. Just enter thehard disk to be destroyed in the appropriate slot, set a timer and wait for the device to be subjected to continuous vibrations, until it is completely disassembled.
The process carried out by Disk Mantle separates the magnetic platters, coils, printed circuit board and all other components of each hard disk. In this way, a definitive dismantling is achieved which is proposed as a more advanced approach environmental friendly compared to shredding and incineration, mechanisms typically used at an industrial level.
Incinerating a hard disk requires temperatures above 670 °C, leaves toxic residues, destroys the magnets that contain elements belonging to the rare earths (increasingly in demand nowadays) and is certainly an expensive process. Disk shredding also requires energy and is unsafe: in certain cases, portions of data can be recovered.
The separation of the internal components of a hard disk also allows the correct disposal by specialized companies, at a fraction of the cost normally faced to manage hard disks as they are marketed.
How to permanently delete data from hard disk
Companies, professionals and private users who wanted permanently delete data from hard disks they can also use programs that overwrite the stored data one or more times. There data overwritingin fact, effectively eliminates the possibility of recovery.
Using tools that remove the contents of hard disks can be useful when you want to give the media to third parties or intend to reuse them on systems that are not under your direct control.
Among the software that can be used to delete data from hard drives without any possibility of recovery, there is Microsoft SDelete: we also used it to add a secure deletion function in Windows. SDelete can also be run from Windows PE-based bootable media.
Alternatively, you can use programs such as DBAN (Darik’s Boot and Nuke), CCleaner, Eraser e Secure Erase.
The images published in the article are taken from the Garner Products website.