Ricoh charging £500 to remove old copier hard drive for GDPR

[enjay]

The full wipe from Ricoh is more than just splatting the disk, they also clear the memory and clean the fuser units although I can't imagine you'd be able to see much from a fuser except possibly the last document which was printed, so you could clean that yourself by printing a few full-page photos or opening Paint, filling the image black and printing it.

[HTCPCP]

Always used Sharp printers with the DSK set up to ensure that wasn't needed on the advice of our provider. I would assume Ricoh offer something similar for anyone taking out a new lease.

 

Our provider showed us how they did the optional extra data destruction (was in the region of £300 a machine IIRC), which was to basically, take the old hard drive out, wipe it professionally, re-configure and re-install. Then you get your Data Destruction certificate for it too. Took them a few hours of work to get it done, and allowed users to come and see it being done if they wanted too. Cost more if you wanted them to shred the drive. Yes, it is not cheap, but all those registers, reports etc that are printed out by teachers are not things you want to have breached.

[enjay]

Yes, it is not cheap, but all those registers, reports etc that are printed out by teachers are not things you want to have breached.

 

True, but does anyone actually know if an old print-job is held on the disk, memory or imaging drum in a human-readable way anyway?! Part of me would like to see that proved before I pay them a month's rental to wipe the machine.

[robk]

True, but does anyone actually know if an old print-job is held on the disk, memory or imaging drum in a human-readable way anyway?! Part of me would like to see that proved before I pay them a month's rental to wipe the machine.

I was told that unless Doc storage was in use it was a cache of the last few print jobs on a ricoh format disc. So unless yoh knew what you were doing difficult to get to. I think you can encrypt the drive though?

[HTCPCP]

True, but does anyone actually know if an old print-job is held on the disk, memory or imaging drum in a human-readable way anyway?! Part of me would like to see that proved before I pay them a month's rental to wipe the machine.

Hard drives are used for holding all transient data going to the printer. So, it may have been written over a fair few times, but that data would have gone through the hard drive. That's every print job, every scan, fax etc. That data is often partially recoverable without too much effort.

 

Think about it this way, would you dispose of a work hard drive without proper data destruction?

[enjay]

Hard drives are used for holding all transient data going to the printer. So, it may have been written over a fair few times, but that data would have gone through the hard drive. That's every print job, every scan, fax etc. That data is often partially recoverable without too much effort.

 

I'm aware what data has been on the drive, my question is whether that data is actually recoverable in a meaningful format. Ricoh offer a data wiping service then a more expensive one which includes wiping memory and cleaning drum units but without offering any evidence to support the idea you can recover an old document from a drum unit.

 

Think about it this way, would you dispose of a work hard drive without proper data destruction?

 

Depends on the hard drive. If it was the one from the laptop which we only use for Powerpoints in assemblies, then yes. That said, our WEEE recycling company wipes all disks as standard, for our servers we paid extra for physical destruction of the drives.

[Anonimouse]

Interesting! I've just searched for this exact topic and found this thread!

 

Our Reprographics Manager arranged the replacement of 3 photocopiers in three data-sensitive areas over the half term break - I was on hand to help with the technical side of things. I'm rarely involved with photocopiers, unless there is a driver/network scan or e-mail issue.

 

However yesterday I received a call from Ricoh stating that the 'Secure30' option had not been ticked. News to me! Upon explanation, it did sound like a service that we would be interested in, considering the existing printers were used in areas where confidential files will have been scanned/photocopied. However the price of £349 per machine was laughable! I managed to knock the price down to £199 per machine - FYI

 

It's still an incredible amount for data destruction. It would be cheaper for us to borrow a drill from the Site Team and do it ourselves! What are the legalities? If the machine is rented/leased and returned to Ricoh, is it not in their interest to wipe the data? Is it not now their responsibility as to how the data is handled/destroyed?

 

We have absolutely no budget whatsoever; dire straights in terms of finances. It feels as though we're been fleeced!

[synaesthesia]

The only real comeback they have is the fact they own the machines and you're having to pay them to remove your data from their machines. I assume that information is in the original lease agreement, if not then they surely have no legal comeback if you destroy the data yourself? (IANAL)

[PotNoodleTech]

What about pulling the ricoh HDD out and refitting a blank data wiped one out of an old PC for them instead? I've got a box full of 250GB HDD's here.

[Quatermass]

We're replacing our 4 rented units over the summer (staying with Ricoh) and them removing and giving us the old drives is FOC. Drill on standby