Before you specify
Frequently Asked Questions
Is punching a drive enough to satisfy NSA requirements on its own?
Not for classified magnetic media. The 818 HD is listed by NSA as a deformer, and NSA/CSS Policy Manual 9-12 treats deformation as one step in a process rather than the whole of it - classified magnetic hard drives are required to be degaussed with an EPL-listed degausser before physical destruction. For unclassified or commercially confidential drives, deformation alone is normally accepted. Read the current version of Policy Manual 9-12 against your own classification level before writing the procedure.
Will it destroy an SSD?
No, and you should not try. Solid state drives store data in flash chips scattered across a circuit board, and a punch that misses those chips leaves recoverable data behind. Dahle lists 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch magnetic hard drives for this machine. For SSDs, phones and thumb drives, the PowerTEC 808 MS shreds the media to 4 x 15 mm, which destroys the chip packages themselves.
How long does one drive take?
Dahle does not publish a cycle time or a drives-per-hour figure, so we will not quote one. What we can say is that it is a single-stroke punch rather than a shredding process, the chute is illuminated so seating a drive is quick, and the 27-gallon bin holds a substantial number of punched drives before it needs emptying. In practice the paperwork usually takes longer than the machine does.
Does it need oiling or any consumables?
No. There are no cutting cylinders, so there is no lubricant to buy and no oiling schedule. That is a genuine ownership advantage over the shredding-based machines in the PowerTEC range, where lubricant is an ongoing cost. The punch itself is hardened and nickel-plated for wear resistance.
What does DIN 66399 level H-3 mean?
The H scale in DIN 66399 covers hard disk media specifically, from H-1 to H-7, based on how thoroughly the medium is rendered unreadable. H-3 means the data carrier is deformed to the point that recovery would require special equipment and significant effort. It is a mid-scale classification appropriate to confidential business data. It is not equivalent to H-5 or above, which require the drive to be reduced to small fragments.
Can it be moved between sites?
It is on casters and weighs 154 lb, so it rolls across a level floor easily and two people can manage it through a doorway. It runs on 115 V, so no special supply is needed at the destination. That combination makes it realistic to share one machine between two nearby buildings, which is not true of the 1,257 lb 828 HD.