[BBLISA] DDS Tape Erasure/Destruction Services?

[John Stoffel]

Theo> Hey there, I have dozens of DDS and DDS2 tapes which I used to
Theo> use for backups of my old personal server.  I'd like to get rid
Theo> of all of them, but they still have data on there that I'd
Theo> prefer not to let other people have access to.

I've got a radio shack degausser, works wonders on the older tapes
like this, DDS, 9-track, 8mm, etc, even early DLT.  Doesn't work
nearly as well with the newer DLT III/IV, SuperDLT, LTO, etc
technologies since they all use a magnetic material on them which
needs a really strong magnet to flip the bits reliably.

To get the density, and taking advantage of the inverse square law,
they use a really small, really powerful magnet on the heads.  

In your case, just crush the case and cut up the tape a few times, it
won't be readable.

For newer tapes, same thing.  But when you need to wipe securely, but
re-use tapes, you need a degausser.

Except for LTO tapes, they require a properly formatted magnetic
alignment track written to them to make them work.  You degauss the
tape, you can't re-use it any more.  Which is fine, but if you're just
looking for a secure wipe so you can re-use it elsewhere (sell on
ebay) then you have to physically write and re-write the tape to the
standards your organization subscribes to.

John