When it's time for a new computer, you need to take some steps to ensure that the data from the old hard drive isn't accessible. Even if you “wiped” the drive, some of your private data, such as passwords and bank account information, may still be accessible. The only way to ensure that someone isn't able to retrieve your private information is by ensuring that the hard drive is completely destroyed so that data is not retrievable. 

Shredding documents is an important step in securing your personal data or, if you own a business, your customers' personal data. Shredding hard drives is also a step in protecting personal and confidential data, though most people do not think about shredding hard drives – they just throw the computer away.

Most companies have switched to digital data instead of keeping paper files. Doctors, lawyers, banks and many other professions now store files on the computer. Eventually, a computer becomes obsolete or it dies and companies replace the computers with new computers. Even if you format the hard drives on the computers being thrown away, data thieves could still get information that was stored on the hard drives.

When it's time to get rid of an old computer, whether you are a business or an individual, you need to take steps to secure the hard drive – and that means ensuring it's completely destroyed so that less than honest people are not able to get your personal or work information from the drive.  Also, check out our guide to shredding medical documents for more information about medical document destruction.