Walking the Line Between Reusing and Destroying Your Hard Drive

As a decision-maker within your business, you want to preserve and save resources. So when you come across a hard drive that no one seems to be using, it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that you can simply reuse it for you or another employee within your business.

But in fact, doing so can be dangerous, especially if the hard drive in question contained sensitive data. Sometimes, it’s better to destroy than to reuse your hard drive to preserve the privacy of your data and ensuring your company is safe from digital leaks. In that case, you need a hard drive destroyer, and finding the balance between needing or not needing this device can be a fine line to walk.

Perform a Data Audit

First, you should determine just what data currently exists and has existed on the hard drive in the past. The first is relatively easy, but the second can be more difficult. Tracing back who in your company used the hard drive in the past can help you make an educated guess on the data stored on it in the past. No data is ever fully lost until it is fully deleted. So, be careful if the hard drive has ever contained sensitive information – even if it no longer does.

When in Doubt, Destroy

Thankfully, new hard drives are no longer expensive to acquire. As a result, especially if you are unable to determine whether the hard drive you are thinking about reusing stores old, sensitive data, destroying it may be your safest choice regardless of the situation. Better be safe than sorry is more than just a cliche in ensuring your data is safe; it’s an important lesson for any business.

And if you are ready to ensure the safety of your business, contact us. We’d love to talk to you about our products, which help you safely destroy data to ensure security and prevent leaks.

 

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