Last technical review: September 29, 2026 by PC-Doctor Engineering

Physical destruction is required when policy demands it, when the drive can’t complete a verified erase, or when the media can’t reach the sanitization level the data requires. Otherwise, a verified Purge lets the drive be reused or resold. Degaussing only works on magnetic drives. Shredding works on everything. Wiping works on both, if the drive supports the right commands and the policy accepts the result.

That paragraph is the whole decision. Most operations don’t make it. They destroy by default, because destruction feels safe, or they wipe by default, because wiping preserves value. Both defaults are wrong for some fraction of every batch.