Hard Drive & Electronic Media Destruction
Destroy hard drives, electronics, and digital storage media securely
Overview
Hard drive destruction services charge $8-$25 per drive or project rates.
Destroying 500-2,000 drives monthly generates $120,000-$600,000 annually with 65-80% margins.
In 2025, data breaches costly requiring secure hard drive destruction.
Services include hard drive shredding and destruction, SSD destruction, certificate of destruction with serial numbers, on-site destruction witnessing, electronic media destruction (tapes, CDs), and data sanitization verification.
Successful hard drive destruction businesses invest in specialized media shredders, provide certificates documenting each drive, offer on-site destruction for sensitive clients, comply with NIST guidelines, and handle e-waste properly.
Can serve businesses, data centers, IT service providers, government agencies, and healthcare.
Many clients have decommissioned servers and computers.
Marketing through IT companies, data centers, managed service providers, and security-conscious businesses.
Required Skills
- Electronic Media Knowledge
- Data Security Standards
- Specialized Equipment
- Compliance Documentation
- B2B Sales
- E-Waste Handling
Pros and Cons
Pros
- High per-unit pricing ($8-$25 per drive)
- Data security drives growing demand
- Less competition than paper shredding
- Can add e-waste recycling revenue
- Government and enterprise clients
Cons
- Expensive specialized shredding equipment
- Need NIST and compliance knowledge
- E-waste regulations and handling
- Some clients require on-site destruction
- Technology changes require equipment updates
How to Get Started
- Invest in hard drive shredder
- Learn NIST data sanitization standards
- Develop documentation and certificates
- Target IT companies and data centers
- Offer on-site destruction for sensitive clients
- Market data security and compliance
- Add e-waste recycling for additional revenue
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