220-1102 Operational Procedures Practice Question
A technician is decommissioning several old magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs) that contain sensitive company data. The drives are no longer in use and will be physically destroyed. Which of the following methods will BEST ensure that the data on these HDDs is irretrievable before disposal?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse logical destruction methods (formatting, deleting partitions) with physical destruction, assuming that making the drive 'unbootable' or 'empty' in the OS is sufficient to prevent data recovery, when in fact only degaussing or physical shredding ensures irretrievability for magnetic HDDs.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Degauss the drives using a commercial degausser
Degaussing uses a powerful magnetic field to randomize the magnetic domains on the platters of magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs), effectively destroying both the data and the drive's servo tracks, making the data irretrievable even with advanced forensic tools. This is the only method listed that physically alters the magnetic medium to a degree that prevents any form of data recovery, which is essential for decommissioning drives containing sensitive data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Perform a quick format on each drive
Why it's wrong here
A quick format on an HDD only rebuilds the file system structures (e.g., boot sector, file allocation tables, MFT) and marks the entire volume as available for reuse; it does not overwrite the actual data sectors. The original file contents remain on the platters until those clusters are later overwritten, so commercial recovery tools can reconstruct files by scanning the raw sectors for signatures. Because no deterministic pattern is written to the user data region, a quick format provides zero data sanitization value and is unacceptable for decommissioning drives containing sensitive information.
- ✗
Delete all partitions and create one new partition
Why it's wrong here
Deleting all partitions and creating one new partition merely changes the partition table (e.g., MBR or GPT) and rewrites the initial partition boot sector. The data blocks that previously held files are left completely untouched in the unallocated space, and a partitioned drive still exposes those original sectors to any recovery software. Without an explicit overwrite, secure erase, or degaussing step, the old data remains physically recoverable, so this action only removes the logical addressing, not the underlying information.
- ✓
Degauss the drives using a commercial degausser
Why this is correct
A commercial degausser generates an intense, varying magnetic field that exceeds the coercivity of the HDD platters, randomizing the orientation of the magnetic domains that encode all data. This process physically destroys the recorded data, including the servo tracks, the firmware area, and the user data, rendering the drive unusable and unrecoverable even with specialized equipment. Degaussing is a recognized destruction method for HDDs in standards like NIST SP 800-88, but note it is not effective on SSDs because SSDs store data in flash memory, not magnetic media; for these HDDs it is the correct choice.
- ✗
Reformat the drives and install a fresh copy of Windows
Why it's wrong here
Reformatting the drives and reinstalling Windows performs a full format which, at most, writes zeroes to the boot sector and file system structures while scanning/verifying the media, but it does not guarantee overwriting every sector of user data. A fresh Windows installation writes its operating system files across some sectors, but the vast majority of pre-existing file data remains in unallocated space or in slack space. Recovery tools can still reassemble many of the original files, and the OS installation itself provides no sanitization guarantee, so this method fails to meet decommissioning data destruction requirements.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.