Hey Folks,

I just wanted to let you know that your friends at Total Secure Shredding are now accepting e-Waste at no charge.

What is e-Waste?

E-Waste is all obsolete or outdated computers, televisions, cell phones, printers, PDAs, and multitudes of other electronic devices used throughout the day every day.

Why not just throw this stuff into the regular trash?

There are serious environmental concerns that result from the disposal of e-Waste. Here are just a few of the hazardous elements and compounds that are routinely found in everyday electronics:

• Lead in cathode ray tubes and solder
• Mercury in switches and housing
• Arsenic trioxide as flame retardant
• Polybrominated flame retardants in plastic casing, cables, and circuit boards
• Selenium in circuit boards as power to supply rectifier
• Cadmium in circuit boards and semiconductors
• Chromium in steel as corrosion protection
• Cobalt in steel for structural strength and magnetivity

Ok, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you…

I have no idea what all this means! (I do know that it doesn’t sound like something I’d want seeping into my water supply.)

But here’s the great news, I don’t have to know and neither do you.

You see, I’ve arranged for my buddy Ed Pletner (an electronic waste recycling guru) who runs AVR Recycling to come by my shop every once in a while to pick up all this e-Waste stuff. He then turns around and commoditizes what he can or will just make sure everything is properly recycled with the proper environmental compliance.

And what’s even better, he doesn’t charge me to do all this! (So how does Ed make money? I don’t know that either – I’m just the messenger here!) (He also picks up our shredded hard drives for recycling – that a bonus for your Head Shredding Guy!)

So in any event, I’m not going to charge you either!!

And , if you head on over to Ed’s website, you’ll also see that he is an Asset Management Expert which means he can put together a custom asset management strategy based on your company’s needs; From proper packing and disassemble to eventual asset retirement.

This even can include providing all the necessary logistical services to remove all your no longer needed equipment.

Ed also can use his “inside connections” to arrange to resell your old equipment for its maximum value – Talk about a WIN-WIN!

The reason I’m even getting involved in all this is because I’ve been shredding your hard drives over the last couple of years. During that process, I’ve managed to collect a little mountain of old computers I had no idea what to do with. Now I have a place to get rid of all these old computers.

But, I also noticed that there were quite a few folks who would show up for drop-off paper documents for shredding but also needed to get some old computers recycled. They typically would take these computers elsewhere for recycling.

Now they can drop them here. But there is one caveat…

If you bring in a computer for FREE recycling and don’t want the hard drive shredded, that’s fine, but you will have to sign a liability waiver that Total Secure Shredding is NOT responsible for any data left on the electronics for recycling.

So, starting today, feel free to bring down your old electronics for FREE, environmentally friendly, recycling any time during normal drop-off shredding hours.

Those hours are:

Monday to Friday: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm

Here’s the address:

3584 Hancock St.
San Diego, CA 92110

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call.

Until next time… Keep Totally Secure!

Your friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy
(619) 295-5474

P.S. Did you get a load of all those toxic thingys listed above… Who knew?

Finally, an article that puts the argument of Hard Drive Shred Size to bed!

Just a week ago, I about put myself into a coma by trying to explain the impracticality of trying to recover data from a hard drive that had been physically destroyed.

In short… IT’S IMPOSSIBLE

Ok… it is possible… but in the “I’m going to win the Powerball Lottery” kind of way.

It all comes down to how the data on a hard drive is encoded. Each manufacturer encodes their hard drives differently.  Then, to allow for the most data to be stored on these hard drives, the manufacturers are increasing the “areal density” (how tightly the data is encoded) on the drives.

This equates to extremely complex coding unique to each manufacturer.

But isn’t there something that can read the data off a random discarded piece of a hard drive?

In theory… Yes.

There is a process called magnetic force microscopy (MFM) photography that can see the data in its encoded format.

So then all we have to do is decode it – Right?

Well, not so fast.

First, there is the problem of size. Each one of these pictures would have to be saved somewhere for later decoding. For a 20 gigabite hard drive, all these MFM “pictures” would take up approximately 16 terabytes.

Then, here’s the fun part, each picture would then have to “be analyzed by an expert to interpret each bit” of information. Just the idea of this puts the notion of hard drive data recovery in the realms of impossible.

But were not done.

Now we have to know how the hard drive was encoded so we can know how to decode it.

To decode the data it would be necessary to know the manufacturer of the hard drive and the model of the hard drive, in fact. Most likely, one would even need to know the version of the firmware that was used to write the data. Even this information is not enough to decode the data, as one would need access to the manufacturer’s proprietary information concerning how that particular firmware/model drive actually wrote the data to the disk surface.

Still not satisfied that the data on your hard drive is not secure after running it through a hard drive shredder?

So even if we had all the information needed to decode the data, any hard drive that has been physically altered (shredded) will have significant damage to portions of the disks platters that will make the data impossible to retrieve no matter what.

The only response at this point is that data recovery from a physically destroyed hard drive, especially one that is in pieces, is impossible.

So I guess I need to restate my earlier comment…

You probably MORE LIKELY to win the lottery than having the data from a shredded hard drive restored.

To read the full story as published in Storage & Destruction Business magazine, here’s the link:

“Does Size Really Matter?”

As always, if you have any questions about hard drive shredding or have other document destruction concerns, please feel free to give us a call:

(619) 295-5474

Also, I’d love to hear your feedback about this topic in the comments section below.

Until next time… Keep Totally Secure.

Your friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

P.S. I always knew that data recovery from a shredded hard drive was virtually impossible. But that paragraph in quotes above really eliminates the “virtually” part – Don’t ya think?

I’ve been working with (American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants) AALNC ever since they called me out of desperation the day prior to a scheduled shredding even when some other company backed out at the last second.

Since then we’ve built a strong relationship, I’ve still give them the price of $5.00 per box for watch while you wait shredding! If you’ve been down to our paper shredding facility lately, you know the price we charge for watch while you wait shredding is now $6.95 per box.

Here’s the details:

Price: $5.00 per standard file box
Who: AALNC
When: Saturday October 15, 2011 10am to 1:30pm
Where: Tri City Wellness Center
6250 El Camino Real
Carlsbad, CA 92009

View Larger Map
This event is being held up in Carlsbad. I get a number of calls asking if we have anything up in North County.

Well, here’s your chance!

Our big shredding truck will be on the scene to shred your documents while you wait. Normally this event is open to just members of AALNC, but this year they were nice enough to let me invite the entire world!

Hope to see you there!

Your Friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

P.S. Did you see the incredibly low price I mentioned above!

We have a Paper Shredding Event this coming Saturday that I think you should know about.

A portion of the proceeds go to the Coronado Women’s Group College Fund that provides college scholarships to Senior Girls attending Coronado High School.

Here are the details:

Price: $7.00 per standard file box
Who: Coronado Women’s Group
When: Saturday October 8, 2011 9am to 12pm
Where: Union Bank of California Parking Lot
800 Orange Ave
Coronado, CA 92118

View Larger Map

If you happen to be anywhere near Coronado Island, this is a great opportunity. Instead of coming down to us and paying $6.95, you can stay on beautiful Coronado Island and watch your documents get shredded, just like at our facility, for just a nickel more!

Best yet, HALF of the proceeds are going to charity. This is a Win, Win, Win situation!

I hope to see you there.

Your Friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

I just wanted to let you know about a couple of Paper Shredding Events we have planned over the next couple of Saturdays.

EVENT #1: Coronado Women’s Group

The charge per box is $7.00 and you get to watch your documents get shredded while you wait.

A portion of the proceeds go to the Coronado Women’s Group College Fund that provides college scholarships to Senior Girls attending Coronado High School.

Here are the details:

Price: $7.00 per standard file box
Who: Coronado Women’s Group
When: Saturday October 8, 2011 9am to 12pm
Where: Union Bank of California Parking Lot
800 Orange Ave
Coronado, CA 92118

View Larger Map

EVENT #2: San Diego Chapter of American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC)

I’ve been working with AALNC ever since they called me out of desperation the day prior to a scheduled shredding even when some other company backed out at the last second.

Since we’ve built such a long relationship, I’ve still give them the price of $5.00 per box for watch while you wait shredding! If you’ve been down to our facility lately, you know the price we charge for watch while you wait shredding is now $6.95 per box.

Also,  this event is being held up in Carlsbad. I get a number of calls asking if we have anything up in North County. Well, here’s your chance! Our big shredding truck will be on the scene to shred your documents while you wait. Normally this event is open to just members of AALNC, but this year they were nice enough to let me invite the entire world!

Here’s the details:

Price: $5.00 per standard file box
Who: AALNC
When: Saturday October 15, 2011 10am to 1:30pm
Where: Tri City Wellness Center
6250 El Camino Real
Carlsbad, CA 92009

View Larger Map

If you happen to be on my email list, I’ll be sending out a few email reminders this week and next about these events.

If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call (619) 295-5474

Until next time, Keep Totally Secure,

Your Friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy