britechguy
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,415
- Location
- Staunton, VA
This topic is a pretty direct spin-off of my topic yesterday about how those here may advise executors or others in a position of managing someone's estate.
Today I actually visited the person who'd called me at her deceased brother's apartment. Talk about digital hoarding writ large, I have never seen anyone with a larger collection of desktop, high capacity backup drives than the decedent had. There are at least 20, possibly more, and I believe most of them contain ancient media files, though who knows what's on there.
Since Virginia allows for a will to be contested for up to one year, and the digital equivalent of personal papers that might be needed were his will to be contested might be present on one or more of those drives, I advised his sister (and also executor) to avoid wiping or physical destruction of these drives until that year is up. I'd honestly hate to see them physically destroyed as they could easily be used again by schools or non-profits.
I'm curious if anyone might have recommendations for "mail in/ship in" drive wipe and/or destruction services. I am not aware of any such service locally, and will be doing more research, but thought I'd ask if anyone has ever used a service to securely dispose of backup drives whether that disposal involved a "gently, but complete wipe" or physical or magnetic-pulse destruction of some sort.
Today I actually visited the person who'd called me at her deceased brother's apartment. Talk about digital hoarding writ large, I have never seen anyone with a larger collection of desktop, high capacity backup drives than the decedent had. There are at least 20, possibly more, and I believe most of them contain ancient media files, though who knows what's on there.
Since Virginia allows for a will to be contested for up to one year, and the digital equivalent of personal papers that might be needed were his will to be contested might be present on one or more of those drives, I advised his sister (and also executor) to avoid wiping or physical destruction of these drives until that year is up. I'd honestly hate to see them physically destroyed as they could easily be used again by schools or non-profits.
I'm curious if anyone might have recommendations for "mail in/ship in" drive wipe and/or destruction services. I am not aware of any such service locally, and will be doing more research, but thought I'd ask if anyone has ever used a service to securely dispose of backup drives whether that disposal involved a "gently, but complete wipe" or physical or magnetic-pulse destruction of some sort.
