Hard disk degaussers are used to wipe the drive by overwriting data stored in the hard drive. It is a type of magnetic disk sanitization and is typically used when organisations or people need to dispose of a computer or a hard drive. It is often confused with a computer “wiping utility” that does not actually destroy data, but rather erases it from the file system table.
There are two types of hard disk degaussers: manual and automatic. A manual degausser requires someone to manually operate it while an automatic one can be operated without any manual help within seconds, but at the cost of higher initial purchase price.
A degausser machine is a machine that is used for data destruction. It does this by removing the magnetic field from the hard drive.
A degausser machine has a steel or aluminum plate on the top. The hard drive is mounted on this plate so that it is not touching any metal surface, which could interfere with its magnetic field. A coil of wire wrapped around the center of the plate creates a magnetic field when electric current flows through it. This magnetic field is strong enough to demagnetize and destroy data on any hard drive in less than 30 seconds.
