Secure Data Erasure

Deleting files does not remove them, emptying the recycle bin does not remove them, and for most drives neither does a factory reset. The data stays recoverable with tools anyone can download until the drive is properly erased.

This matters most at exactly the moment people stop thinking about it — when a laptop is sold on, a phone is traded in, or an old machine goes to the recycling center. Those devices routinely leave the house with tax records, saved passwords and years of photographs still on them.

That covers whatever the drive turns out to be. Spinning hard disks and solid-state drives need different treatment, and we handle both: IDE and SATA drives pulled from old desktops, M.2 and NVMe drives from recent laptops, USB sticks and external drives, and the built-in storage in phones and tablets. Bring the loose drive or the whole machine, whichever is easier.

We erase to a verified standard appropriate to the drive, check the device is no longer tied to accounts that would let someone else claim it, and give you written confirmation of what was done to which serial number. If a drive is failing or cannot be erased to a standard we can verify, we will say so and offer physical destruction instead.

Prices reflect the time these engagements normally take. Where a service is priced by size, pick the tier matching whichever part of the description is larger for you — a small house with a great many devices belongs in the higher tier. If what we find on the day goes beyond the tier you picked, we will tell you before starting and agree any additional time with you first. We never bill for extra time you have not agreed to.

How it works

1. Hand them over

   Drop the devices off, or we collect them if you are having other work done. We list what we have received before anything happens to it.

2. Erase and verify

   The right method for the drive — cryptographic or secure erase for SSDs and NVMe, multi-pass overwriting for spinning disks — using our own IDE, SATA, M.2 and NVMe adapters, so nothing depends on the machine it came out of. Then a verification pass to confirm it took.

3. Confirmation

   Devices back, with a written record of each one erased, its serial number, and the method used.

Often added to this

When we confirm the details by email, mention any of these — or we will suggest one if it fits — and it goes on the same invoice as the main work.

• Additional drives

  $45 erased · $25 destroyed

  Beyond the four drives an erasure covers, or the six a destruction run covers.

• Follow-up check

  $150

  A remote session a month or two later to confirm what was set up is still in place, updates are landing, and nothing new has crept in.

The full list of add-ons