Why Shred? Three Good Reasons!

(But primarily, to improve data security and protect your compliance;)

1. Operational Reasons

Are you upgrading your infrastructure?

Do you have old hard drives, computers, or servers sitting in storage?

How important is it to you to protect confidential data?

Are you worried about the security of you company information - or your client information - on your old hard drives?

Many companies have recognized the absolute degree of security that the onsite shredding of hard drives provides.

2. Legal Reasons

There is legislation in place that mandates organizations protect an individual's information. As general examples;

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act); patient information

FACTA (Fair Trade and Credit Transaction Act of 2003); consumer information

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (also known as, Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999); consumer's personal financial data, and more...

Penalties for non-compliance can be very severe including fines, officer personal liability, and criminal prosecution. Please make sure your company is up to date regarding the legislation and any DoD guidelines that affect your organization.


3. Hard Drive Destruction (Shredding) Compared to Hard Drive Erasing (Wiping)

Destruction and erasure are both used in industry.

In our opinion, destruction is best used for hard drives at end-of-life, for faulty hard drives, or to comply with external or internal mandates - including DOD. It is also potentially more cost effective when considering the total cost of service.

Erasing, also known as wiping or cleaning, is often used in situations where the current owner wants to internally re-deploy hard drives. If a company is thinking of reselling their computers or stand-alone hard drives, some points should be considered;

  • Some hard drive platters may not erase electronically due to problems within the hard drive. Examples are no spin-up (due to bad hard drive motors), faulty read heads, and hard drive printed circuit board issues. Drives may also have intermittent failures that cause them to not erase. In these situations, hard drives can potentially be repaired, making the data totally accessible to its owner.
  • In contrast, physical hard drive destruction renders all information non-retrievable as the process results in material shreds and particles.
  • Erasing may require software licensing and associated costs.
  • Destruction by shredding occurs in seconds and is much faster than erasing or degaussing. Time to erase is dependent upon hard drive size; time for physical destruction is independent of size.


Midwest Mobile Hard Drive Shredding


Call toll-free: 877.624.3726 (877.MMHDS.CO) - Email: contact@mmhds.com