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Archive and destroy old data disks?
My company has tons of data on old data disks that they’d like converted onto our cloud servers, and then destroyed. What is the best way to attack a project like this? Are there companies you can hire that will handle the conversion/archival process? How do you properly destroy an old data disk? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
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2 Answers
Less, there are a couple of companies of which I am aware. One is Iron Mountain. We used them for a similar service and had satisfactory results. There are probably several in your local area that you could contact.
I agree with Joey's suggestions, one alternative to opening the disks would be to drill several holes through the disk in a random pattern. Two of which should penetrate the internal controller board to completely disable it.
One word of caution, while moving to the cloud is certainly beneficial, consider keeping and updating a master local copy of what is out there. As nice as the cloud may be, I have seen too many instances where access was unavaiable or the data corrupted for some reason and the organization had a difficult time recovering.
I always keep a local copy available to enable an immediate restore in necessary. It's updated daily (in the evenings) and forms the basis for what we put out on our virtual backup systems.
It's just prudent risk management. You don't want to be caught with your proverbial "pants" down.
Hope this helps
I don't have any companies to recommend, but destroying a HDD is actually a fairly intricate process; the level of complexity depends on how secure you want/need to be.
The most secure way I know:
1. Write 0s to the disk – about 30 times. That is (or maybe by now was) rumored to be the CIA standard method for erasing a disk.
2. Pass a really strong magnant over the disk. Electro magnants are good.
3. Open the disk up and physically break the platters. Many pieces are good.
If you're feeling lazy, step number one should be just fine, and can be done entirely with software. Step number two is much faster, and theoretically as secure – especially since you're throwing the disks away.
Good luck to you!
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