Secure Hard Drive Shredding for Businesses & Organizations

Our off-site hard drive shredding process is designed for secure, efficient, and compliant data destruction. To ensure a smooth and secure pickup, we request that customers prepare their hard drives as follows

To ensure a smooth and secure pickup for our off-site hard drive shredding service, please follow these preparation steps:

1. Hard Drive Removal: Remove all hard drives and SSDs from computers and devices prior to our arrival. Loose hard drives are easier to inventory and track, which enhances the security of your data.
2. Accurate Count: Please provide us with an accurate count of the hard drives and other media you will be sending. This count will be used to generate the Chain of Custody (COC) document.
3. Packaging: Place the loose hard drives / Media to be shredded in a sealed box to ensure all drives are accounted for during transport.
4. Print COC Document: We will send you a Chain of Custody (COC) document. Please print this document and have it ready to hand to our driver upon pickup. This document serves as a secure record of your hard drives from the moment they leave your facility.

• During your initial call, we’ll request an accurate count of the hard drives for pickup. This count will be used to generate a Chain of Custody (COC) document.
• The COC document serves as a secure record of your hard drives from the moment they leave your facility. You’ll sign this document over to our driver upon pickup.
• Our drivers utilize locked transport boxes, to which only authorized shredding operators and foremen have access. This ensures the security of your drives during transit.
• Upon pickup, our driver will email a pickup receipt to your designated contact, confirming the count of computers and/or hard drives received (unless computers are previously palletized).
• If hard drive removal is not feasible, we can still assist. However, this process requires additional steps for tracking and security. Our drivers will label each device with a pricing label and your job number.
• Devices containing hard drives are kept separate from other pickups throughout transit and at our warehouse. Hard drives are then removed at our secure facility. See more details about our computer recycling process.
• Please note that there are additional costs associated with removing hard drives from screen devices (e.g., laptops, monitors) and devices with on-board data (e.g., phones, tablets) due to the labor involved. Erasing devices with hard drive issues will still be shredded at no extra cost. For devices with on-board data, our technicians must remove lithium-ion batteries prior to shredding.
• Customer provided boards that are requested to be shredded will be treated like loose hard drives, with no additional cost unless serial number capture is requested.

Our trucks are equipped with GPS tracking for added security during transport, as outlined on our transportation page.

• We offer two options for Certificates of Destruction (CODs): by count or by serial number. Serial number capture incurs an additional fee, as detailed on our reporting/certificates page.
• The COC document signed at pickup is a crucial part of the COD process, ensuring a secure chain of custody.

• Off-site hard drive shredding offers a cost-effective solution, often included with our electronic recycling pickup. Even with serial number capture, off-site remains more economical than on-site shredding.
• While on-site shredding offers the added benefit of witnessing the destruction process, off-site shredding provides a secure and compliant solution for data destruction.

On-Board Data Destruction (Tablets, Phones & Embedded Storage Devices)

As technology advances, more electronics now store data directly on the main logic board rather than on removable hard drives. This includes many Apple M1 MacBooks, iPads, tablets, smartphones, and payment terminals.
To securely destroy these “on-board data” devices:

• Battery Removal Required: Before shredding, lithium-ion batteries must be safely removed to prevent fire risk and ensure environmental compliance.

• Secure Board Destruction: Once batteries are removed, the internal boards are shredded in the same secure process as hard drives, permanently destroying all embedded data.

• Documentation & Compliance: Each on-board device is tracked under your job number and included in your Certificate of Destruction, confirming full data sanitization.

This ensures complete NIST 800-88–compliant destruction for devices that no longer contain traditional hard drives while maintaining environmental safety standards.