Re: What is the universal (world wide) understanding behind degaussing harddisks?

[John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com>]

Mike Stone writes:
> Degaussing a hard drive will render it inoperative. It's also
> relatively hard to do/requires special equipment. (Just waving a
> refrigerator magnet around isn't going to do it.)

The equipment required for degaussing isn't very special (though it
*does* require an AC magnet).  However, a determined opponent can
probably recover data from a degaussed disk.  Overwriting with zeros is
probably more effective with modern disks (the hard part may be making
sure every physical sector actually does get overwritten).

If the device contains truly sensitive and important data destroy it.
For ordinary people, though, an erase program is more than adequate.
Nobody cares enough about your secrets to make any kind of a serious
effort to recover them from a scrapped disk.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhasler@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA