A technician needs to dispose of an old database server which stored company payroll information. Which of the following is a logical data destruction method suitable for this task?

Degaussing uses a strong magnetic field to erase data and is a physical/magnetic destruction method, not a logical one.

Using a commercial shredder physically destroys the hard drive and its platters, which is a physical destruction method, not a logical one.

Overwriting data multiple times with random or fixed patterns - also known as disk wiping or data sanitization - is a logical data destruction technique that renders original data unrecoverable without physically destroying the media. Standards such as DoD 5220.22-M and NIST 800-88 define multi-pass overwrite procedures as acceptable for sanitizing drives containing sensitive data like payroll information.

Burning the hard drive physically destroys the media and is a physical destruction method, not a logical one as specified by the question.