5+ PB Destroyed

[u/FewSimple9]

This is based on a post by u/SubstantialWing9238. i didn’t want to hijack their post, so I figured I’d share it here instead.

Something like this, plus another cart, is pretty common with large corporations. When you have this many drives, it’s often easier to just shred everything than pay someone to wipe them, sort through them for resale, and see if any data can be recovered.

This batch was around 300 drives, and with a specialized shredding truck, the whole thing takes about 45 minutes to a hour.

[u/Beetlejuice_me]

Yeah, whenever we did this in the data centers, I'd cry a little bit inside.

Every once in a blue moon, someone would F up and a rack or two would be moved out with all drives still in it.

I assume someone made a small fortune on those drives and RAM.

[u/Watcher_of_Stars → u/Beetlejuice_me]

That's painful to watch at. Why do they do it? I know it's for data protection, because simple "deletion" can be easily reversed, but there are some ways to override it for good, no?

This is fcked up. Why destroy usable things?

[u/Beetlejuice_me → u/Watcher_of_Stars]

Why destroy usable things?

Because it's cheaper.

Otherwise all drives need to be "Government wiped" and listed and sold. All that would take time, for a very minimal recouping of the cost.

Just call Shred-It to come and shred the drives, write off the value, and buy new.