hard-drive destruction

Did you know that that deleting a file from your computer hard-drive doesn’t actually remove it?

And, did you know that the data on an average hard drive, when printed out, could cover ten football pitches? Imagine what could happen if a hard drive full of confidential customer or company data fell into the wrong hands…..

It is estimated that in first half of 2018 alone, about 4.5 billion records were exposed as a result of data breaches. In 2019, a collection of 2.7 billion identity records, consisting of 774 million unique email addresses and 21 million unique passwords, was posted on the web for sale (“Data breaches compromised 4.5bn records in half year 2018 – Gemalto", The Citizen, October 17, 2018)

So, if you are disposing of obsolete IT equipment and have deleted the files from the hard-drive before putting it in a skip and think all the data has gone, think again. Or if you have stacks of IT equipment in a forgotten storage cupboard, remember your organisation could be at risk and data can be retrieved from it.

Our hard drive destruction service offers a cost-effective solution for your IT destruction needs and can include regular collections or one-off clear-outs. When the hard drive is removed, the asset tag number of each device is recorded on the Certificate of Secure Destruction. The hard drive itself is destroyed and the resultant waste is sent for recycling to recover all rare-earth elements and other precious materials. The rest of the unit is then
either sent for recycling or re-use.

We can also securely destroy any media that contains (or once contained) confidential data. That includes backup and audio tapes, optical disks (CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs), flash drives (memory sticks), SD cards and more.

All non-data components are disposed of according to UK government regulations under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. We have a 100% non-landfill policy.