Disposal of Computer Hard Drives

Sanitization of hard drives is the process of removing sensitive information from storage media in a manner that gives assurance that the information cannot be recovered by keyboard or laboratory attack. Before the sanitization process begins, the computer should be disconnected from any external network to prevent accidental damage to the network operating system (OS) or other files on the network. In addition, when possible, users should audit the sanitizing process to ensure data is no longer retrievable. This means a knowledgeable person should witness the sanitization process and verify that the hard drive was sanitized.

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Read the complete paper at University of Arizona