Dispose of a hard disk safely

We get a lot of letters from readers asking how they can dispose of their hard disks without putting their personal information at risk. Computeractive was at the Infosec conference and Andrea Petrou spoke with Keith Pryde from Diskshred about how to do this.

The first thing he told her was that the delete key just doesn't work. Even after they are deleted or removed from the hard disk, files can still be recovered. The only way to keep files private is to remove the hard disk and keep it or destroy it.

However, Mr Pryde did not agree with the recent advice to try and destroy disks. They are very durable, and files can be recovered even if the disk platters are bent. There is also a danger of injury due to the force needed to break them.