An IT technician is preparing a fleet of decommissioned desktop computers containing both magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) for transport to an off-site physical destruction facility. Corporate security policy mandates that all storage media must undergo on-site logical sanitization or deactivation to purge all sensitive data prior to leaving the facility. Which TWO of the following procedures should the technician perform to properly sanitize these specific media types on-site? (Select TWO.)
- Executing an ATA or NVMe Secure Erase command on the solid-state drivesAnswer
- BExposing the solid-state drives to a high-capacity magnetic degausser
- Exposing the magnetic hard disk drives to a high-capacity magnetic degausserAnswer
- DPerforming a standard full operating system format on the magnetic hard disk drives
Answer
The technician should execute an ATA or NVMe Secure Erase command on the solid-state drives and apply a high-capacity magnetic degausser to the magnetic hard disk drives.
Proper media disposition requires selecting sanitization techniques matched to the storage media's physical composition. ATA or NVMe Secure Erase sends microcode instructions directly to the drive controller to flush NAND flash memory blocks, making it the correct purging choice for solid-state drives. High-intensity magnetic degaussing neutralizes the magnetic field alignment on platter surfaces, destroying data on magnetic hard disk drives.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Data sanitization methods must match the physical storage architecture: degaussing applies strictly to magnetic media (HDDs/tapes), whereas solid-state media (SSDs) require firmware-level commands like ATA/NVMe Secure Erase or cryptographic erasure.