Data destruction you can prove, drive by drive
A certificate that says “all data destroyed” without serial numbers proves very little. ETR records each drive individually, applies the sanitization level appropriate to the media and your data, and verifies the result before the device moves on.
Three levels, chosen per device
NIST Special Publication 800-88 defines three sanitization outcomes. We apply the one that fits the media type and the sensitivity of what was stored on it.
- Clear: logical overwrite of all user-addressable storage. Suitable for lower-risk media that will be reused.
- Purge: techniques such as cryptographic erase or block erase that defeat laboratory recovery. Our default for drives going to resale.
- Destroy: physical shredding or disintegration so the media can never be read or reused.
Solid-state drives need different treatment
Overwriting an SSD does not reliably reach every cell, because the drive remaps storage internally. For SSD and NVMe media we use firmware-level purge commands consistent with IEEE 2883, verify the result, and fall back to physical destruction when a drive cannot be verified.
Verification, not assumption
Each wipe is verified and logged against the drive serial. A drive that fails verification is not resold; it is pulled for physical destruction and marked that way on your report.
Questions
Should we wipe or shred?
If the equipment has resale value, a verified Purge preserves that value and is accepted for most data. If your policy requires physical destruction, or the drive is damaged, we shred. Many clients choose wipe for laptops and shred for server drives.
Can you destroy drives that are still inside the computers?
Yes. We remove them, log both the drive and host serial numbers, and destroy the drive. The chassis can then be recycled or, in some cases, resold without storage.
Do you handle phones and tablets?
Yes. Mobile devices are factory reset with cryptographic erase and verified, or physically destroyed if they cannot be verified or your policy requires it.
Related guides
- NIST SP 800-88 explained: Clear, Purge and DestroyNIST SP 800-88 in plain language: what Clear, Purge and Destroy mean, which applies to hard drives, SSDs and phones, and how to verify it.
- Certificate of data destruction: what it must containWhat a certificate of data destruction should list, the details NIST SP 800-88 calls for, the gaps that make one worthless in an audit, and a real example.
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