220-1102 Question 525
Single answerDegaussingA company is retiring several storage devices that held confidential financial records. One device is a failed magnetic hard disk drive (HDD) that cannot be wiped through software because it no longer spins up. The security officer asks the technician to make sure the data cannot be recovered before the drive is sent to recycling. Which action is the BEST choice?
- A
Use a degausser on the failed HDD before disposal
- B
Format the drive and reinstall the operating system
- C
Delete the partitions from Disk Management and mark the drive as unallocated
- D
Run a file shredder against the user folders after connecting the drive through a USB adapter
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to degauss the failed magnetic HDD. In A+ Core 2, storage sanitization methods are matched to the media type and operational condition of the device. Degaussing is specifically used for magnetic media and is valuable when a drive cannot be wiped through software because it has failed. Best-practice guidance from media sanitization standards such as NIST SP 800-88 emphasizes choosing a sanitization method appropriate to the technology and the organization's security requirements. For magnetic drives being discarded, degaussing or physical destruction are accepted approaches when data confidentiality is critical. Candidates should also remember that degaussing is not appropriate for SSDs or other flash-based storage because those devices do not store data magnetically.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Degaussing is an appropriate sanitization method for magnetic media such as traditional HDDs and magnetic tapes. It disrupts the magnetic domains that store data, making recovery impractical or impossible. This is especially useful when a failed HDD cannot be accessed for software-based wiping. A technician should also understand that degaussing typically renders the drive unusable afterward, which is acceptable here because the drive is being retired.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Formatting and reinstalling an operating system do not reliably sanitize data. A standard format mainly prepares the file system for reuse and does not provide the same assurance as a proper sanitization method. In this scenario, the drive has already failed and cannot be accessed normally, so this option is also not practical.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Deleting partitions only removes file system structure references. The underlying data may still remain on the magnetic platters and could potentially be recovered with forensic tools. This is a common misconception because unallocated space may appear empty to the operating system, but it is not securely sanitized.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A file shredder can be useful when a working drive is accessible and individual files need to be overwritten, but it is not the best answer here. The drive does not spin up, so software tools cannot reliably access the media. In addition, shredding selected folders would not address all residual data on the disk.