Computer Data Storage: Degaussing And Physical Destruction Methods

At one point, you might wish to do away with the data you have stored in your computer data storage media. In this regard, you would have several methods to do this, which might involve only getting rid of the information stored therein or completely destroying the storage media.

Data elimination is best handled by professionals equipped with the necessary tools. This is a service you can easily receive from companies that also deal with data recovery, offsite data storage, data protection, disaster recovery, systems and network support, as well as other forms of data operations and management.

If you only need to eliminate the data from your storage media, you may wonder why anyone would ever want to completely destroy the storage media too. Well, the reality is that some of the devices might contain highly sensitive information, and it would be difficult to accurately determine if any of such data still remain in the devices. This is one reason why such institutions as the State Records Office of Western Australia require that physical destruction methods be utilised in sanitising the devices.

The Degaussing Option

If the data contained in computer devices is only moderately sensitive, degaussing would be an appropriate option. However, you wouldn't need degaussing if such data is non-sensitive, since you could easily use overwriting.

Degaussing can be applied to various storage media, including computer tapes, audio and video tapes, and hard disks. A strong magnetic field is applied to the device, which reduces coercivity (signals in magnetic particles) on the recording surfaces down to zero. Through this process, the complete removal of data, white noise (stray signals between tracks) and format is achieved.

Apart from permanent destruction of the data within such devices, you would also benefit from a better quality recording surface, in case you intend to reuse the device. Such re-usability is limited to certain types of devices, since it won't apply to LTO tapes, hard disks, Zip disks and various kinds of tapes.

Although degaussing may appear similar to formatting, it is quite different. Formatting is hardly effective in complete destruction of data, since the data would still be recoverable. Only degaussing can assure you of complete destruction of all data.

The size of a degausser would vary depending on the type of device you intend to degauss. Some are large enough to degauss laptops, while others are small enough to hold in your hands. Since the larger degaussers might be too expensive to buy, you might hire the services of a professional company to do the degaussing for you.

The Physical Destruction Option

Physical destruction is an excellent option for highly sensitive information. Actually, it's not uncommon to find that people who degauss their storage media would also go on to physically destroy the devices.

This requires special equipment that can fulfil the purpose. Such equipment is designed to completely destroy the data storage parts of a hard drive, so that the disk would be completely unusable and it would be impossible to repair the damage inflicted onto the device. Indeed, this is an option that you would often find in the military, used by many countries, to completely destroy sensitive information.


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Richard Stutchbury boasts of a long-term experience in handling different forms of computer storage media. He helps organizations in developing appropriate storage systems. You can get in touch with him at Stutch Data. Visit http://www.stutchdata.com.au for more info.