Refurbished Hard Drives

[gbugbear at gmail.com (Tim Mugherini)]

We recently went through a similar line of questioning with our
vendors/manufacturers and received a mix of responses. In the end we
purchased a degauser. None of them seemed to care if drives were
degaused before sending back.

On 7/7/09, Dan Stadelman <bioradmeister at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think I was talking to tkrabec in IRC about how hard drive vendors
> handle the data on defective hard drives that were returned under
> warranty. So I sent a question off to Seagate to see what they do with
> the data on defective drives...
>
> Obviously if there is something sensitive on the drive, then you
> should destroy it - but their response was pretty interesting...
>
> Dan
>
> QUESTION:
>
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering what happens to the defective drives that are returned
> to Seagate. I know you sell refurbished drives - is the data on the
> returned drives wiped before you sell them a refurbished drives? If
> so, how are the drives wiped.
>
> I am worried about someone being able to recover data off a returned drive.
>
> RESPONSE:
>
> Thank you for sending your Seagate E-mail inquiry.
>
> Seagate takes measures to ensure the security of all of our customer's
> personal, confidential data. When a drive arrives at our returns depot
> facility, it will first be tested. During the first phase of testing
> it is low-level formatted which completely wipes it of any and all
> data from sector 0 to the last sector. As a returning defective drive,
> if the drive is not in a functional state capable of a low-level
> format, the drive is disassembled and the platters (where the data is
> stored) are recycled. Once a platter is removed from the spindle of a
> hard drive, the data is no longer readable by any means.
>
> Regards,
>
> Hassan Zouga
> Warranty and Customer Support Escalation
> Seagate Technology, Inc
> 1 800 SEAGATE
> ref:00D0hhzl.50036lvP0:ref
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