What happens with a failed external HD?

scoobymunster

I bought a Seagate HD a few months back and the thing has died on me. I'm returning it under warranty for a replacement. What will happen the one I'm returning? the reason I ask is that it contained work related documents that I'd rather remained private. Thanks

Sorry if this is the wrong forum:)

asif2011

I think most get completely disassembled even the case gets sandblasted for remove all the paint and goes through reassembly again. I would suspect the hard disk plater itself would be melted down. I can't find the article but remember reading something when I sent back my Maxtor hard drives to their base in Bray at the time (which is now gone I think). Once your hard drive is with the manufacturer it'll be safely dealt with - they are well used to those fears, they deal with corporations with company secrets worth millions... that's not to say your secrets are not worth millions

U_Fig

asif2011 wrote: »

I think most get completely disassembled even the case gets sandblasted for remove all the paint and goes through reassembly again. I would suspect the hard disk plater itself would be melted down. I can't find the article but remember reading something when I sent back my Maxtor hard drives to their base in Bray at the time (which is now gone I think). Once your hard drive is with the manufacturer it'll be safely dealt with - they are well used to those fears, they deal with corporations with company secrets worth millions... that's not to say your secrets are not worth millions

i agree any professional company should comply with professional ethics and so your data should be safe they will have procedures in place to prevent that sort of thing.. personally i have never sent a failed HDD back i just replaced it but that's mainly because it was never under warranty and was cheaper to do so

scoobymunster

Thanks for replying, it was bought to weekly backup the family business work computer. Didn't exactly contain credit cards and pin numbers but ya never know how the information could be used hence the query. Thankfully the computer still works fine so I'm not worried about the data loss, just if it was to be resold that it would be wiped clean first.