Don't Let Your Data Get Away from You - 001
This is the first in a number of posts about how you keep your data safe. Data, for most of you, are your photos; emails; Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents; your music files; financial records; and any other personal or business information you store on your PC. These posts will apply to both Windows PCs and Apple PCs unless specifically stated.
There are many ways to keep your data safe:
- backing up regularly to an external drive
- having a second drive in your computer that mirrors your main drive, so that if one drive fails, the other is identical to it and can take over running the machine
- backing up to an online storage company
- making sure your PC is protected via a firewall, virus protection, spam blocker, and spyware protection
- making sure you walk the web with caution
- don't respond to pop ups telling you your computer is infected
- open emails responsibly
- destroying your hard drive before throwing it away (or better yet, recycling it)
I will post about and explain all of these over time. I don't want anyone's head exploding due to the amount of information they get from here all at once.
So, I'll tackle the easiest one first. When the time comes to get a new computer, and you want to dispose of the old one, PLEASE recycle all components. There are a number of recycling centers in most cities and you can find them simply by Googling "recycle computer" and adding the name of your town or city, or the nearest one, if you don't live IN one. Some places will even allow you to ship the equipment to them freight free and send you a box to boot! (A little double entendre there.)
For example, I Googled "computer recycle Atlanta" and got:
as well as:
There were 10 other pages of results. I have used the first two, as well as the Roswell Recycling Center in the past. However, Roswell Recycling allows only residents of the City of Roswell to use the electronics aspect of the center.As for the last two, they are excellent resources on where and how to recycle electronic in Georgia.
Please get that I used the word "electronics". You can also recycle your old VCR, digital camera, TV, and other similar stuff at most centers.
Now, there is one thing you MUST do before recycling your PC. Remove the hard drive (or get someone to do it for you) and destroy it physically. Erasing it WILL NOT protect your data from someone who really wants it. Smashing it with a sledge hammer will do it, although it might destroy your driveway, too.
I use a 1/4" or 1/2" titanium drill bit and punch three holes through the platters in the drive all the way through the electronics on the bottom. I use a scrap 2"x4" under the drive to keep the bit from ruining my table. I even give my clients a certificate of destruction. I use a Sharpie to write their name on the drive, I drill the drive, photograph it, and attach the photo in Microsoft Word to a certificate that I send them as proof of the destruction.
Another insight into my character - I LOVE DOING THIS! I help my clients and I get paid to destroy a sensitive piece of electronics hardware all at the same time. My job is soooo cool!
Anyway, more on this topic in a few days.
Posted by Sid Plait at 7/2/2008 4:48 PM 
Categories: The Environment, Hardware Disposal, Backups, Data Recovery, All
Categories: The Environment, Hardware Disposal, Backups, Data Recovery, All
If you don't trust overwriting the data multiple times, then aren't you already into the real of three letter agencies?
It seems to me they wouldn't have much trouble reading the undamaged sections of the helpfully labeled hard drives.
It seems to me that a funner^Wbetter solution would be thermite.
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Thermite is good. I just don't know where I'd set it off. C4 is more fun, though. You just have to watch out for flying fragments.
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I've heard people who provide good credentials to claim the title of computer security expert say that the average hard drive data, when over-written once, is pretty much irretrievable, and that multiple over-writes are redundant. You contradict this assertion. Who am I to believe? Do you have any test I can perform to confirm your stance?
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I have also read differing opinions. Some say once is good enough. Others say the DOD method or total destruction of the hard drive are the only ways to be sure.
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