Just to let you know - I just shipped a defective drive to seagate and faxed them a signed "Certification of Destruction for Secure Sites" form that they provided me. I kept the platters and sent them back the top cover of the drive, for RMA purposes. If the data is important to you, I would recommend pursuing that avenue.HTH iamnowonmai
On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Joel Folkerts <[email protected]>wrote: > I strongly agree with Tim. While I trust that Seagate is handling the > drives appropriately, you aren't guaranteed that they won't doll this task > out to a sub who isn't as thorough. It's also not clear what they mean by a > "low-level" format. Keep in mind that the drive tracks which sectors are > usable and not - if a drive detects that a sector is unreliable, it will > mark it as bad (leaving the existing data intact) and never read or write > from it again. When a drive is subsequently wiped, it will skip past these > sectors leaving the existing data in place. Ideally, they would erase the > bad sector list and wipe every physical sector on the disk. Again, I > reasonably suspect that Seagate handles this properly but a degauser is > relatively cheap insurance. > > -Joel > > p.s. As a quick after thought, this is a very secure way of hiding data. > 1.) Erase bad sector listing; 2.) Wipe drive; 3.) Write data; 4.) Manually > mark those sectors as bad; 5.) Data is now hidden. As far as I know, this > process requires a some fairly expensive and specialized hardware but it is > capable. > > > "The path to hell is paved with good intentions." > > > > > On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 5:16 AM, Tim Mugherini<[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 <[email protected]> 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 > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Pauldotcom mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > >> Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com > >> > > > > -- > > Sent from my mobile device > > _______________________________________________ > > Pauldotcom mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Pauldotcom mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com >
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