What Happens to My Hard Drive?
All of the data on your hard drives, and other removable media, is either wiped clean or the device is destroyed beyond repair. Nine times out of ten, the drive has no value beyond it’s weight in scrap, so we break them up and they go in to a bin to be recycled. In the rare cases where we actually do erase a drive, we meet or exceed all government mandates requiring certified data destruction.
What If I Don’t Want My Drive Destroyed?
If you have data on your system to be recycled and don’t want the drive to be destroyed, you can either take it out yourself before bringing it to us or we can remove the drive for you when you drop it off.
Why Can’t I Just Smash It With A Hammer or Drill Holes In It?
We strongly discourage anyone from trying to destroy their data on their own. While it is very gratifying to some of us, removing the drive and smashing it with a hammer can cause accidents that are unnecessary. Desktop hard drives are mainly made of aluminum which can easily shatter and become unsafe. Laptop hard drives are even worse, because they are usually made out of glass platters that basically turn to dust when they are smashed. Additionally, when you smash or attempt to drill a hole in your device to destroy the data in it you risk hitting the battery and causing an explosion, sever burns, and possibly death.
It’s best to leave these things up to the professionals.