Waste Management and Recycling News

04-07-2010

How to protect your data when recycling your home computer

When recycling your old home computer with your local recycling center it is important to destroy your data beforehand. Your old computer hard drive can contain personal information that can leave you vulnerable to identity theft. Destroying your hard drive, prior to recycling ensures that your data remains safe, however it's worrying the amount of people still disposing of their computer with information still on the disk. Pure Planet Recycling think the following two methods are the best option for the home user, however for the business user we think a more thorough approach is needed.

Hammer and Nail

One of the easiest methods of destroying your hard drive is a simple hammer and nail through the hard drive as reported here back in 2009. You simply hammer a nail through the platter of the disk which makes the hard drive unusable. Although the data will still remain on the disk, it would need to be recovered forensically, which is a skilled and time consuming task, not for the everyday data miner. Whilst this method is easy, it involves taking the computer apart in order to remove the hard drive and wont allow the reuse of the hard drive.

Data Wiping Software

Pure Planet Recycling use certified data wiping software, however, for the average home user this may be overkill. A simple search for "free data wiping software" returns many results. They will all involve overwriting your data with random 0's and 1's to clear the data. We recommend searching for reviews and selecting the piece of software you trust the most. The benefit of this method is that the hard drive can be reused and doesn't involve removing the hard drive.

Pure Planet Recycling specialise in secure data destruction for businesses. If you need advice on destroying your data please contact us.

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