The future of Hard Drives and Degausser requirements

M

agnetic tape and older-generation hard disks can be erased by relatively low-power degaussers, whereas modern hard disks require extremely powerful degaussers. The reason is that modern hard disks are designed with special alloys that have very strong resistance to magnetic change, which enables manufacturers to decrease the size of magnetic regions on the disk to allow for higher data densities.

Resistance to magnetic change is referred to as coercivity and is measured in Oersteds (Oe). In general, HDDs manufactured between 1999 and 2003 have coercivity up to 3,000 Oe, and a degausser must be approved for that level to ensure complete data erasure. HDDs manufactured in 2004-2005 have coercivity of 4,000 Oe and beyond, with the trend continuing to approximately 5,000 Oe in 2006.  Clearly, as HDD technology continues to evolve to higher density drives, Oersted ratings will continue to go up and higher strength degaussers will be required by the NSA.  Many degaussers currently on the NSA Evaluated Products List for Degaussers will become obsolete.

The following Disk Coercivity Chart is based on data from the Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).

Currently, most NSA approved EMP degaussers have single pole magnetic field ratings in the 15,000 – 20,000 gauss range which equates to being able to barely meet the current NSA Coercivity rating requirement of 5000 Oersteds.

With a dual polarity magnetic field rating of 40,000 gauss, the Datastroyer 105-HD is the strongest EMP Degausser available (Coercivity rating =10,000+ Oersteds) and will continue to meet NSA Coercivity requirements well into the future as other degaussers become outdated.

When considering a degausser for your HDD destruction needs look at the past and plan for the future in HDD technology and the certainty of higher NSA Coercivity requirements.

The Datastroyer 105-HD will meet future requirements for years to come