CompTIA A+ Core 2 (220-1202)SecurityMedium
A technician is tasked with securely decommissioning several old hard disk drives (HDDs) that contain highly sensitive customer data. Simply deleting files and reformatting the drives is insufficient. The company policy requires physical destruction to prevent any data recovery. Which method would ensure the most complete and irreversible data destruction for these HDDs?
- ADegaussing
- BLow-level format
- CShredding
- DZero-fill via software
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Shredding
Shredding (or pulverizing) physically breaks the platters of an HDD into tiny pieces, making data recovery impossible. While degaussing can erase data, physical destruction methods like shredding provide the highest level of assurance against data recovery, especially for highly sensitive information.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Degaussing uses a strong magnetic field to erase data, but physical destruction is more certain for HDDs.
- B. Low-level formatting rewrites track and sector information, but does not guarantee complete data erasure against advanced recovery.
- D. Zero-filling overwrites data with zeros but is a software method and not considered physical destruction.
Physical Destruction
Methods that physically damage storage media to ensure data is permanently unrecoverable.
- Highest level of data sanitization assurance.
- Includes shredding, pulverizing, incineration, and crushing.
- Irreversible process for data on HDDs, SSDs, and other media.
Memory trick: From simple delete to total destruction, choose wisely.