Data Destruction Method Selector.
Five questions. Get the right sanitisation method for your media, whether to do it onsite, and which documents to ask your vendor for.
Answer the five questions to see the recommended method, where to do it and which documents to ask for.
How the recommendation is made.
The tool follows three rules taken from NIST SP 800-88 and common practice:
- Match the method to the media. Overwriting suits hard drives. Flash storage needs firmware sanitize or cryptographic erase, or physical destruction. Degaussing only works on magnetic media.
- Reuse means sanitize and verify; no reuse means destroy. A drive that will never be used again can be destroyed, which is easy to see and to certify.
- Policy decides location. If media may not leave your building, everything happens onsite.
It does not collect or store your answers. We only count that the tool was used.
Questions, answered.
It applies published sanitisation guidance to five facts about your device: the storage type, whether you want to reuse it, whether it works, whether media may leave your building and how sensitive the data is. It then recommends a method, where to do it and which documents to ask for.
No. It is general guidance based on NIST SP 800-88 and common practice. Your own security policy and your auditor have the final say.
Because degaussing only works on magnetic media. SSDs, NVMe drives, phones and memory cards store data in flash memory, which a degausser does not affect.
Last reviewed 30 September 2026. Sources: NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2.
Want us to check your plan?
Send your media types and policy. We confirm the method, onsite or offsite, and the documents you will receive.
