DoD 5220.22-M (also called the DoD Short) was the U.S. Department of Defense standard for clearing and sanitizing magnetic storage media. It called for multiple-pass overwriting with specific bit patterns. However, NIST SP 800-88 has largely superseded it, and for SSDs and modern HDDs, physical destruction (shredding) is now the recommended method when the highest level of security is required. Our shredding process exceeds both DoD and NIST standards.

Degaussing works for traditional magnetic HDDs but is completely ineffective on SSDs, NVMe drives, USB flash drives, and any flash-based storage. Even for HDDs, degaussing renders the drive inoperable but sophisticated forensic labs have shown partial data recovery from degaussed platters. Physical shredding is the only method that guarantees 100% destruction for both HDD and SSD media.

Our industrial shredders can process thousands of drives per hour. For on-site service, our mobile units handle 200–400 drives per hour. There is no minimum or maximum — we handle single drives for individuals up to tens of thousands for enterprise data center decommissions. Call for availability and scheduling.

After industrial shredding, a hard drive is reduced to small metal fragments typically 2mm or smaller. The platters, read/write heads, circuit board, and all components are completely destroyed. There are no recognizable parts and no possibility of any data reconstruction.

The shredding process is the same — industrial shredders handle both HDDs and SSDs with equal effectiveness. The key difference is that SSDs require physical shredding because software methods are ineffective due to wear-leveling. Our shredders reduce both types to fragments smaller than 2mm, meeting NSA/CSS EPL requirements for flash media destruction.

After shredding, all materials are sent to R2-certified electronics recyclers. The metal fragments (primarily aluminum, steel, and rare earth elements) are recovered and processed for reuse. No shredded material goes to landfill. You can receive documentation of the full recycling chain if needed for environmental reporting.

Yes — we offer drop-off service at our secure facility locations. You can also ship drives to us in any secure container. Call 1-844-SHRED-00 to arrange secure drop-off or shipping instructions. For businesses with compliance requirements, we recommend on-site service to maintain the strictest chain of custody.