Ship and Shred vs. Mobile Hard Drive Destruction: Which Is More Beneficial?

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Destruction of media is the ultimate form of sanitization.” Most of the standards that exist to erase a hard drive mention several ways to physically destroy one including disintegration, grinding, pulverization, incineration, melting, and of course, shredding. This month, Legal Shred is looking at the benefits of hard drive shredding and why it is the safest, most secure way to ensure that your old and obsolete hard drives are rendered unusable.

Mail-back programs are a convenient way to discard items that we no longer need, and it’s a green solution to keeping trash out of our landfills.  For hard drives, many companies offer “ship and shred,” a process where you package up your old hard drives and send them to a place to be destroyed properly so that the hard drive is no longer usable.  While convenient, there are still some risks associated with this method, particularly since you’re leaving your hard drive in the hands of shipping companies.  The shipping industry is no stranger to hazard; safety, problem resolution, timely delivery, accurate delivery, lost goods, fees, taxes, and insurance are some factors that should be examined when deciding whether to ship and shred or not. 

A better solution to mitigate risk? Mobile hard drive destruction.

Mobile shredding trucks can destroy up to 8,000 lb. of paper an hour and have the ability to store 5,000 to 20,000 lbs. of shredded paper. They are equipped to destroy media as well, including CDs, DVDs, and yes, even hard drives.

When hiring a document and hard drive destruction company, you have the option to have your hard drives destroyed onsite, which means you don’t have to travel or ship your sensitive information.  A mobile shredding truck comes right to your home or place of business, saving you miles, gas, shipping costs, and eliminates any and all shipping risks.

With a mobile hard drive shredding service, you’ll be able to witness your hard drive being destroyed.  This means you can personally see the job done rather than having to leave this task in the hands of a third-party shipper.

If you are upgrading to a new computer, you must always remove and destroy the hard drive before selling, donating, or recycling any computer equipment.  Failure to destroy the hard drive before giving the computer away could result in sensitive information ending up in the hands of the new owner, who will then be able to copy old files and go through your personal information that has been stored on the device.

Physically destroying a hard drive is the only way to absolutely ensure that the data on it is no longer available.  Just as there is no way to extract the written information from a shredded piece of paper, there is no way to read the data from a hard drive that is no longer a hard drive.

Let’s talk about your old hard drives and how you can have them safely destroyed, no shipping required.

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