Retiring Computer Hardware
Records and other sensitive information may be contained on any computer or electronic device. It is the responsibility of the department to ensure that all such information is destroyed prior to the device leaving the control of the department.
Devices That May Contain Sensitive Information
- Desktop computers
- Laptop computers
- External hard drives
- USB flash drives
- Cell phones
Disposing of Electronic Devices
Devices that can boot from a CD should be cleaned prior using the DBAN system described below. For information regarding the disposal of other device types please contact Records Management by email or by phone at (208) 885-2580.
Cleaning Information from Hard Drives with DBAN
The Department of Records Management and the ITS Help Desk will provide a bootable CD upon request for use in eliminating all data from computer hard drives prior to disposal. The CD contains Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), a widely recognized software package that overwrites all data on the computer's hard drives enough times so that it is essentially impossible to recover any data from the disk.
Note that this technique may not work properly with solid state drives (SSDs). Physical destruction of the drives is recommended to ensure data security for SSDs. If you require assistance in this regard, ITS Technology Support Services is available. A fee may be charged for this service.
Using the DBAN CD
- Insert the University of Idaho DBAN CD into the computer's CD drive.
- Restart the computer.
- If the computer boots up normally, and you are uncertain how to make it boot from the CD, please contact the ITS Help Desk by email or by phone at (208) 885-4357.
- When the computer has booted from the CD you should see this screen:
At the 'Boot:' prompt, type the word 'autonuke' and hit enter:
The rest of the process is automatic. DBAN will probably take several hours to complete, depending on the speed of the computer in question and the number and size of the hard drives it contains:
Once DBAN is completed the hard drives have been wiped and it is safe to send the computer outside of departmental or university control:
