Anyone who works extensively with computers and computer systems knows the wealth of data that can be stored on a hard drive. Businesses, companies, community groups, charities, and even individuals can have a lot of personal and sensitive information on their hard drives that they don’t want to get into the wrong hands. A hard drive shredder, which is a specially designed device, works to physically destroy old hard drives so that the data that is stored on them cannot be retrieved, read, or copied in any way.
Shredding a Hard Drive
Hard drives that are going to be tossed out or discarded, even if they seem to be no longer functional, need to be shredded into miniscule particles. Bits of data and information can still be found on the drive even with deletion, rewriting, overwriting, and erasing of files. In any case, even a full reformatting and system restart will not remove all data and memory files. This is why if you are ever throwing out an old computer, system parts, or hard drives that were once used, they need to be disposed of properly and shredded or otherwise destroyed. Otherwise your information could be gleaned from the drive.
What Could They Get?
You may be wondering why this is such a big deal and why it even matters if someone could get some data bits off your old hard drive. Well, it could be a big deal depending on what data they were able to pull. Anything you have done or saved on your computer could be accessed. A hacker who finds your old in-tact hard drive could get bank account and credit card numbers from your online ordering history and payments. They could find addresses and contacts of your email and social media groups. They may find records, forms, personal information, social security numbers, credit scores, phone numbers, names, and just about anything else that would have at one time been on your computer. Scary thought isn’t it?
Be Safe- Shred
With the level of risk involved, there is no reason not to shred your hard drive before throwing it out. The risk of your data and personal information getting out is too great- don’t take that chance! Instead, call us at EPE Components and let us handle all your hard disk shredder needs and rest assured knowing your information is protected with our thorough services.