If asked to prevent snooping by sanitizing a hard drive, what should you do?

To effectively prevent snooping by sanitizing a hard drive, the most reliable approach is to thoroughly delete and overwrite sensitive data. This process, often referred to as data wiping or data sanitation, ensures that the original data is not only deleted but also replaced with new information multiple times. This makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to recover the original data using standard file recovery methods.

Simply deleting files normally does not remove the data from the drive; it merely marks space as available for reuse. The underlying data remains intact and can be easily recovered with the right tools. Placing the hard drive in a magnetic field, known as degaussing, can disrupt and erase information, but it may not always be effective on modern drives, especially solid-state drives (SSDs). Disconnecting the drive from power does not sanitize the data; it only makes it temporarily inaccessible. Therefore, overwriting sensitive data appropriately ensures that it is securely and permanently removed from the hard drive, which is essential for preventing unauthorized access.