What should we do if there is a need to delete data from a magnetic storage, such as a hard disk? Above all, remember that many traditional methods of data destruction are so ineffective that the majority of the information stored on the disk or tape can be recovered. And the necessity of irretrievable deletion of data from carriers withdrawn from use, transferred for liquidation or repair is required by the relevant legal regulations.

One of the really safe and reliable methods of erasing data from HDD is demagnetization, made by specialized equipment – demagnetizer / degausser. Devices of this type are becoming more and more popular: they degauss the media by removing data from them, in addition, they are often compact machines and aesthetic equipment of even small offices. Nowadays having a degausser by enterprises or public institutions is not a luxury, but a standard – an alternative to buying it may be using a demagnetization service carried out by a professional and specialized company (necessary to have an ISO certificate for this type of work).

There are several types of degaussers available on the market. When choosing a particular model, it is worth paying attention that the electromagnetic field emitted by the device has a minimum value of 11,000 gauss – this parameter will enable effective demagnetization of the disk or tape. Why? Well, hard drives and tapes have magnetic properties, measured in Oe (Oersted) units. In order to irreversibly remove information stored on them, it is necessary that the value of the magnetic field generated by the degausser is greater than the magnetic coercivity of the degaussed carrier. Below we give the values of the magnetic field of particular types of carriers.

If we care about the time and the amount of media media for cleaning, it is worth choosing an automatic model, where the degaussing of data from one disk or tape does not last longer than 30 seconds. Unfortunately, not every degausser available on the market achieves such parameters.

Another thing that is important in the process of deciding to buy a specific degausser model is the ease of use. The device should be so intuitive to operate that it is practically impossible to commit an unintentional error by the operator.

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The degausser can be purchased or borrowed at a company specializing in this type of services. There is also the possibility of using professional data destruction services – it is best to choose a service provider who has an ISO certificate for this type of services. It is extremely important that it also has employees with security clearance issued by the Internal Security Agency’s Delegation, which guarantees confidentiality regarding access to classified information marked CONFIDENTIAL.