Destroying hard drives has often been fraught with less than ideal methods. Melting them down produces toxic chemicals and electronic waste, while shredding leaves users vulnerable to hacker attacks. Enter Garner with not one, but two solutions. First, demagnetize the hard drive with their upcoming super demagnetizer called DeMag. Then, insert the hard drive into the DiskMantler, where it gets shaken apart in a matter of seconds.
Data eradication company Garner introduces DiskMantler, measuring 24 inches x 15 inches x 45 inches, designed to dismantle retired hard drives and separate valuable internal components like rare earth metals from the casing. This requires subjecting the device to intense vibrations involving impacts, harmonics, and oscillations, lasting anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds.
According to Garner, it takes just 8 seconds to separate the green board from the hard drive components. Disassembly time can be adjusted from 8 seconds to 120 seconds based on the desired degree of component separation, using the dial on the front of the device.
The actual disassembly process appears straightforward. You can manually insert the hard drive or use the product's conveyor belt system. Then, an internal automated system feeds the hard drive into the disassembly chamber. Once disassembly is complete, recyclable components are ejected from the exit chute.
The aim is to reduce electronic waste by repurposing these components for recycling and provide a more sustainable, safer alternative to traditional shredding and melting methods. While hard drives operate at temperatures of 55 degrees Celsius, melting them down requires temperatures of 670 degrees Celsius or higher, releasing toxic chemicals and damaging rare earth materials.
The ability to reduce electronic waste is a major selling point of DiskMantler, as it addresses a serious global issue. According to United Nations data, the rate of electronic waste generation is five times faster than the rate at which it is recycled using conventional methods.
When hard drives are shredded, security becomes a concern, as hackers can still recover enough data from the fragments to achieve malicious purposes. This is where Garner's another product, DeMag, comes into play. It's a super demagnetizer that can erase all data on a disk, even rendering the magnets inside the hard drive ineffective, thus making data unrecoverable. Additionally, the rare earth magnets inside the hard drive no longer stick to each other or to other objects, thereby increasing the efficiency of handling these materials.
After properly demagnetizing the hard drive, it's ready for the DiskMantler treatment.
