As Hard drives grow in storage and decrease in price daily companies and individuals ask what do I do with my old hard drives? If you wipe your (format, fdisk or delete) data, then donate or sell the drives, your data is not completely gone; the right tools in the wrong hands can easily restore your old data.

A recent two-year study found that more than half of hard drives collected had recoverable data. Even more alarming, a large number of those hard drives contained personal information, such as credit card numbers, medical records and personal data.

Businesses are responsible for more than just their own proprietary data and held to the highest standards when it comes to privacy. You can review some of the laws that physical destruction protects your business from on the Disposal Facts page of our website. Software programs stored on your computer are covered by licensing agreements; this makes it illegal to distribute this software. If these programs fall into the wrong hands, software manufacturers can enforce their rights, which could result in your company facing fines in excess of $100,000 per violation.