[Pauldotcom] Refurbished Hard Drives

[Dan Stadelman]

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
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