A hard drive shredder is a machine that is created to physically destroy hard drives and other data storage devices so the data they hold cannot be retrieved. These tools are mostly used by businesses, government agencies, and organizations that need confidential information to be permanently eradicated.
They have a mighty cutting mechanism which consists of hardened steel blades that can slice through metal, plastic, and electronic media. Hard drive shredders cut hard drives into small pieces with these blades. Also, the machines have high-powered motors that apply the necessary force to shred the hard drives. The goal is to reduce the hard drive into little pieces so the data cannot be restored.
Hard drive shredders can destroy multiple hard drive sizes, from standard 3.5” desktop drives to 2.5” laptop drives, as well as smaller solid state drives (SSDs). They have a high throughput, and are able to shred various hard drives per hour. Depending on the model, hard drive shredders offer different levels of security. The higher the security level of the shredder, the finer the hard drive shreds are. This makes data recovery impossible.
Industries That Use Hard Drive Shredders
Data centers in the information technology (IT) sector, IT departments in corporations, government and military, healthcare, and the financial services industries use hard drive shredders. Data centers utilize them to carefully discard outdated or decommissioned servers and storage devices. Corporate IT departments like these shredders because they ensure private business information and customer data are fully demolished.
Government and military organizations implement hard drive shredders because they obliterate their storage devices that carry sensitive information. As a result, using these shredders prevent data breaches, and comply with the U.S. government’s data destruction requirements and regulations.
The healthcare industry stores a huge amount of patient information on hard drives. They employ hard drive shredders to exterminate this type of data. Shredding patient records adheres to healthcare privacy laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In addition, the financial services industry securely disposes of hard drives that contain classified financial information with these shredders. Hard drive shredding prevents identity theft and fraud in this field.
The Advantages of Using a Hard Drive Shredder
An advantage of using a hard drive shredder is that it performs complete destruction. Many people use data wiping software like DBAN, CCleaner, or Blancco to erase data from a hard drive. However, shredding physically destroys the hard drive, making it impossible to recover data. While software methods can be effective, they can leave traces of data that advanced recovery techniques could exploit.
Another advantage of a heavy duty hard drive shredder is that it can crush numerous types of media. For example, it can demolish magnetic tapes, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, floppy discs, USB flash drives, memory cards, smartphones, tablets, backup drives, and digital cameras. These shredders are valuable for organizations that need to shred and decimate a variety of media.
Our HSM HDS 150-1 Hard Drive Shredder
Our HSM HDS 150-1 Hard Drive Shredder can destroy 750 hard drives per hour, and shreds hard drives into 19/16” strip cut pieces. It successfully executes hard drive data destruction, and is a high security shredder. Most hard drive shredders only accept hard drives up to 1” in thickness. However, this machine can shred hard drives up to 3.5” thick. It can also extinguish CDs, DVDs, floppy disks, USB sticks, chip cards, cell phones, and solid state drives.
It has a height of 43.5”, and a depth of 31.1”, has a width of 46.8”, and weighs 1,646 lbs. It is smaller and more lightweight than other hard drive shredders, and fits into little rooms and offices. Another neat aspect of this product is that its plug can be used with any standard outlet, including a personal workspace outlet.
This hard drive shredder is remarkably quiet for a robust shredder. It has a dBA rating of 57. A dBA rating is a measure of sound intensity, which is adjusted to account for the sensitivity of the human ear to different frequencies. The HDS 150-1 dBA rating of 57 means that it is as noisy as an electric toothbrush.
Additionally, the machine has T-1, E-2, H-3 security (DIN 66399 security levels). This means that your hard drives will be thoroughly destroyed by high security standards. The HDS 150-1 is on the NSA/CSS Evaluated Products List, which is a list maintained by the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) that identifies devices for the secure destruction of hard disk drives (HDDs). Our product is documented as an approved solution for the “deformation of magnetic media hard drive platters.”
Overall, this is a powerful, silent, and compact hard drive shredder that effectively shreds digital media storage devices.
