Chapter 6. Disk Data Wiping
Getting rid of an old PC, upgrading to a new hard drive, returning a leased
computer, or redeploying a PC within your company? It is truly imperative to
completely destroy all data from the old hard disk.
Acronis DriveCleanser guarantees the complete destruction of data on
selected partitions and/or entire disks with extremely simple Windows XP-
style interface and straightforward actions.
6.1 Confidential Information on Hard Disks: Storage and Access
Today more and more amounts of confidential information are created in the
digital form and consigned to storage on computers. Documents that were
previously created with the help of printing machines or table database files
are now stored on computer hard disk drives.
The enormous amount of personal data, including such important things as
personal banking account information, credit card numbers, business
application, data-banking, financial, accounting, and industrial – are all stored on
hard disks. It is impossible to enumerate all documents and data that in no
circumstances should not left behind on a hard disk drive for criminals or rivals
to possibly retrieve.
The main feature of these documents is that all of them contain confidential
information.
6.1.1 Confidential Information: Destruction
Information not only has to be stored according to specially developed rules,
but also destroyed according to the strict rules to provide confidentiality.
Computers are usually upgraded more than once during their lifetimes. In
doing so, very often the computer disk subsystem is upgraded first due to the
ever-increasing amounts of data stored on the hard disk drive. When a hard
disk of larger capacity is installed on the computer, all data from the old disk
can be transferred to the new one, but quite often the data also remains on
the old disk.
Careless storage of a hard disk that is no longer needed can result in the loss
of confidential information. The best solution is to completely destroy data on
the old disk after it is moved to the new disk. Destroy! Not to erase
information, not to delete needless files, but to destroy confidential data!
(The difference between file deleting and information destruction will be
explained later.)
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