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Disposal of old back-up tapes, How??? 2

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bloomlight

IS-IT--Management
Jun 12, 2006
149
US
How can I dispose old backup tapes? Any ideas? Thanks.
 
By dispose, you mean throwing them away? What kind of tapes are they? (DLT, LTO, etc.) is your question pertaining to perhaps the security of data? How to securely erase data or perhaps how can you be environmentally friendly about it

perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5,(40*2),sqrt(7600),(unpack(c,Q)-3+1+3+3-7),oct(104),10,oct(101));'
 
Some are very old tapes. for example, some data was backed up from Novell system many years ago. Currenly, we don't use Novell system. How can I dispose those data tapes? I don't want throw them in the trash bin because some one may get data from the tape if they have Novell system. Please help if you know a safe way to dispose those old backup tapes. Thanks.
 
Are tapes covered by the same legislation as computers, monitors etc (WEEE in the UK & Eire)

What type of tape (already asked I know) depends on how you dispose of to stop recovery
(Although the liberal application af a gallon of 4Star and some Swan Vestas works in 99.9% of case reagrdless of tape type !!!!!! ---- translations availabe on request :) )

<Do I need A Signature or will an X do?>
 
Garden shreder works

Mike

"Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters."
 
Seems as my network support guys have *never* managed to successfully recover anything from backup tape for me sticking them in a tape drive and attempting to read a file seems to do the job quite nicely. :)

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....
 
Such a PITA, I know... but the cheap version is to burn it.
 
A hammer and some effort would do nicely, that is if one sufficiently mutilates the tape contained inside. May be a good way to relieve some of the job related stress too.

Steve
 
A nice large powerful magnet should do the trick. The kind that you can't wear watches or any jewerly around.

Wait - maybe it wasn't a magnet...I'm trying to remember what it was now...
 
Just pull the tape out of the cartridge, and break at several points.

I have in the past had the spools out of DLT iv tapes stuck to the celing of the office, whilst they unwind, and then just took a pair of scissors to the pile of tape on the floor.

=======================================
So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key

Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum
======================================
 
Company picnic followed by bonfire.

-------------------------
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright
 
Well, you could use a magnet, or fire, or you could send them away to be deguassed. This will delete not only the data but the formatting as well.




Robert Liebsch
Systems Psychologist,
Network Sociologist,
Security Pathologist,
User Therapist.
 
We take ours over to a place to has a very large shredder. We do the same to old hard drives after we DOD clean them.

 
Check for a company in your area that does that sort of thing as a service.
 
If you have a few thousand quid to spare, and a place to put it where it won't damage any needed HDDs or tapes, you can get a degaussing machine to securely wipe any tapes and HDDs that you want. This is just a very powerful magnet that blaps the data on the media to kingdom come. Don't wear a watch or have any credit cards, etc, in the viscinity!!!

Also, a number of companies provide on and off-site secure destruction of data. Google "secure data destruction" and have a browse. This is probably your best bet as it is cheaper than buying a degausser and the destroyed media is taken from you and disposed of in a safe, legal way and is more environmentally friendly than burning.
 
Hello.

Depends on how strict your company is regarding the destruction of data. Chopping it up into bits and putting it into a few bin runs may keep your boss happy. However if you need a proper audit trail of media destruction you should go to a company that is in some way accredited. In the UK look for an X listed company, is one I have used. Well worth a visit to the main office to see the lovely lasses. They can keep you advised of what the best route to follow would be.

Laters

Marty

>I love my job. I cry on a Friday night when it is time to go home. Then I wake up and realise it was all a dream and it's not even Monday Lunchtime!
 
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