Hard Disk Degaussing (Demagnetizing )
The degausser is a machine that employs a very strong magnetic field that permanently wipes all disk data. It is a widely accepted method for deleting personal and corporate data. Services such as the American NSA, NATO and the British CESG have conducted special tests on the effectiveness of degaussing and have compiled lists of products that effectively destroy the data. The above services recommend that before the physical destruction via recycling of a hard drive, confidential destruction by degaussing must ALWAYS take place, ensuring that the data will not be restored. The reason being that even if a hard drive is damaged, in most cases all or some data can be recovered. There are many businesses that specialize in recovering data even under the most difficult circumstances, such as a hard drive having been incinerated, broken, or even pierced, these businesses can recover a lot (if not all) of the data. The degausser we use is a very effective tool for deleting data. It is capable of 9,000 Gauss (Gauss B-Field or Oersted H-Field = magnetic field strength unit) and deletion time is approximately 45 seconds in a closed case so as to not affect the operator. After deletion the hard drive is recycled as it is no longer usable and cannot be re-operated.