Software Hard Drive Erasers
Many computer users believe that dragging a file into the trash and then emptying the trash on their desktop will delete a document. In fact, that user has only removed the pathway to accessing that data – the actual data itself has not been deleted. There are three ways in which to get rid of data on your computer hard drive: degaussing the hard drive (hardware), physically destroying the HD (hardware), or erasing the drive using a hard drive eraser (software).
Whereas degaussers are a hardware solution that erase magnetic media by resetting the magnetic charge of the hard drive to a neutral state, thus erasing the data, hard drive erasers employ software that overwrites the drive. Technically speaking, with an overwrite HD eraser, there is no actual “erasure” happening. However, if a drive is overwritten enough times, the underlying data will become indecipherable. The more times a drive is overwritten, the more difficult it becomes to forensically restore any of the original data from the drive.
Overwrite software generally overwrites a drive anywhere from one time, to three times, to up to 35 times. Depending upon the size of the drive and the number of overwrites configured, this process could take multiple hours or even days.
Hard drives must be in good working order and not have any bad sectors on the disk in order for them to be erased using a software overwrite program. If there are bad sectors on the disk, those will be skipped in the overwrite.
What is Secure Erase? How Does Secure Erase Work?
Most ATA interface computer hard drives manufactured after 2001 with capacities greater than 15 GB come preinstalled with an NSA-compliant security erasure program called Secure Erase. The Secure Erase protocol was designed by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) and provides top secret erasure of a computer hard drive to NSA specification.
Concerned about the threat of a virus that might trigger mass HD erasures, NIST specified that Secure Erase be installed on hard drives as a security measure but yet disabled for the average user. There are now hard drive erasers available that activate Secure Erase. Once enabled, the drive is erased to NSA specification (NIST 800-88 4 and 800-14). Secure Erase is compliant with the following laws: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Many units will default to a Department of Defense secure overwrite program (5220.22-M) if a hard drive was not factory installed with Secure Erase. In addition, Secure Erase will overwrite even bad sectors of a hard drive, which most overwrite programs do not.
Can I Erase and Reuse My Computer Hard Drive?
Yes. The best way to erase the data on a hard drive and then reuse the drive is by using a software overwrite HD eraser. A hard drive eraser will permit you to completely “erase” the recorded data from the media by writing over that data. Once the data has been overwritten, the drive can be reused and redeployed, thus potentially saving your company tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars over time.
