Degaussing is a technique that deploys a
powerful electromagnet to sanitize data on hard drives and backup tapes. Degaussing is typically carried out in high data security environments. Some forms of backup tapes can be reused once degaussed. However, backup tapes with a magnetic servo track and hard drives are rendered useless when degaussed. Degaussing in an ideal intermediate step for firms that require onsite data destruction but are unable to accommodate onsite shredding services. Often degaussing is simply a precursor shredding. Once the media has been degaussed it will be shipped to our secure shredding facility to be destroyed.
