What is Degaussing?
- Definition
- Degaussing uses a strong magnetic field to erase magnetic media. It can make data on hard drives and tapes permanently unreadable.
Degaussing is a data destruction method that exposes magnetic storage media to a powerful, alternating magnetic field generated by a degausser. This field disrupts and randomizes the magnetic domains on the storage surface, erasing the data.
Degaussing is effective on magnetic media including traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) and magnetic tapes (LTO, DLT). However, degaussing does NOT work on solid-state drives (SSDs), flash storage, or optical media, because these technologies do not store data magnetically.
After degaussing, a hard drive is permanently unusable, the servo tracks that control the read/write head are also erased, so the drive cannot be reformatted or reused. For this reason, degaussing is considered a "Purge" level sanitization method under NIST 800-88. Organizations that need to sanitize large volumes of magnetic media sometimes use degaussing as a fast alternative to physical shredding.
EverTrade does not own a degausser and does not offer degaussing. This entry is provided for reference so you can compare methods; EverTrade's own process is NIST SP 800-88-aligned data sanitization for eligible reusable drives and physical disabling for end-of-life drives.
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