Secure disposal of old hardware

You’ve been paying careful attention to ensure secure disposal of your old paper records for at least ten years now.

That’s great.

But just a minute… what about those two old PCs just sitting under your desk, and the three (or is it four?) old external backup hard drives in the storeroom? And two of your staff are still struggling with computers which are probably slowing them down enough to reduce their productivity . It’s time to get rid of those old PCs too.

So, what to do with your old hardware?

1. Give them away
   The trouble is that, even after reformatting the hard disks – depending on how you do it, your files may still be accessible to someone with easily available file recovery utilities like these. Old PCs in your office are certain to contain recoverable copies of many documents you thought you had properly disposed of long ago. Just remember that, once these PCs are out of your hands, so is control of any documents on them.
2. Destroy them yourself
   Yes, you could destroy them yourself, like this or this. Possible, but it will take a lot of your time, which is worth more than that. And you still have to dispose of the remains afterwards.
3. Dispose of them securely
   The only way to make really sure that files on those hard disks are no longer accessible, and in a time and cost-effective manner, is for those hardware items to be securely and professionally destructed.

Organising secure disposal of old hardware

Once you have collected your old computers and external hard drives to be destructed, as well as paper or other media on which copies of documents are stored, Confidential Shredding Co provides secure, compliant, efficient and hassle-free destruction of all forms of user information, such as

• External hard disks or entire old PCs
• CDs, X-rays and other electronic media and other non-paper storage media
• Paper records

We pick up your items slated for destruction, and issue you a Certificate of Destruction upon completion, providing you with auditable evidence of compliance.

Further information

There are federally mandated standards for the proper destruction or de-identification of personal information that may be found here.