Hard Drive and Media Destruction in Atlanta

Degaussed, wiped or physically destroyed

Media reaching us are degaussed, wiped with verification, or physically destroyed. Whichever route a unit takes, it happens before the device enters the recycling stream, and which one applies depends on the device type and on your own security requirements.

The sequencing is the point. Recycling a device with a readable drive still in it is the failure everybody is trying to avoid, so the data step comes first and material recovery follows it.

Knowing which equipment still holds storage

The units that cause problems are the ones nobody thought of: a drive still seated in a decommissioned desktop, a laptop in a drawer, a copier that was never treated as a computer. Saying which devices still hold storage is the most useful thing you can do before a collection.

Data-bearing units are separated from empty chassis and displays at the point of collection, so nothing holding data travels unidentified. That separation is only ever as good as the flagging, which is why the list is worth doing on your side of the fence.

Whole computers can go either way. If the machine is being retired anyway, it routes through electronics recycling with the drive dealt with as part of the job. If only the media is being replaced, the drives come on their own.

One collection for the file room and the server room

Confidential information rarely lives in only one format. The clearance that produces boxes of personnel files usually produces the drives those same files were held on.

Media destruction can be booked alongside a document collection, so paper and electronics are handled under one chain-of-custody rather than as two arrangements that have to be reconciled afterwards.