Recovering Data From Destroyed Hard Drives is Easier Than You Think

Think shredding or overwriting your media gives you the security of total data destruction? Think again. 

Would you imagine that data could be recovered from a hard drive that had been partially melted, shredded, and charred? Yet, that is exactly what happened to a hard drive from the space shuttle Columbia. 

Partially melted after passing through the atmosphere, the hard drive dropped from about 40 miles above Earth at a phenomenal speed and remained on the ground for six months before it was found. The dust seal suffered a devastating impact from the intense heat when it went through the atmosphere. It was exposed to all kinds of particles. And yet, forensic analysts were able to recover 99% of the data present on the hard drive.

If data can be recovered from a disk drive destroyed while traveling through space, you may ask yourself: how secure is my data disposal program? 

Michael Harstrick

Chief Global Development Officer at Garner Products, Inc