Question Returning 4 bad HDD for warranty. What happens to the data on them?

[ricleo2]

I am returning 4 HDD's under warranty. Since they are bad, I can not erase all the data on them. What happens to that data once the manufacturer receives them? I have personal financial info on all the drives and I will not send them in if there is a chance somebody can access it.

 

[EXCellR8]

There's a chance that, if the drives are bad, that the data is completely irretrievable anyway. It is likely that warranty returns are quickly inspected and sent to recycling.

 

[killster1]

I am returning 4 HDD's under warranty. Since they are bad, I can not erase all the data on them. What happens to that data once the manufacturer receives them? I have personal financial info on all the drives and I will not send them in if there is a chance somebody can access it.

pretty sure there is always a chance of something happening that is not normal. i wonder what brand these drives might be.
i agree with this quote from 10 years ago, they wont steal the data unless they know whats on the drive before its sent in or had some great reason. 99% of peoples drive content is so boring no one would want to repair them and steal teh data. maybe if they sent it to china but i feel like that would be illegal.

The only way for it to be used illegitimately is if, upon receipt, their technician/s steals the dead HDD and then repairs it at home. The thing is, repairing HDD costs tons of money and makes you literally an asston of money completely legally. We are talking lawer / doctor type money here.
So, you should be about as concerned that your doctor would be stealing your kidney next time you pay 50,000 for a few hours of operation.

I have no idea what type of guarantees the companies in question make though. But if they have the most basic of security and more then 1 (exactly) employee handling RMAs then its fairly safe to say that isn't happening... problem is, I WAS a 1 man RMA department for a company that rolled tens of millions and was selling a variety of products on sears, costco, and a few other major ones (oh, and I handled both USA and canada at once). So it is actually entirely possible for it to be 1 guy who is doing exactly whatever he wants with it.

it is Possible but I wouldn't call it likely. (both the 1 man RMA department and the knowing how to fix HDD and doing it for illegitimate profit)

As for destroying the data without damaging the SSD... you know I am honestly not sure. With a spindle drive I would say degauss (although that would potentially damage newer drives and might be detected as extra damage voiding warranty)... so, maybe someone else would chime in.

 

[aigomorla]

depends on the drive company too.

I Believe if u got certain line of seagate, they will take the data off your drive, and move it onto the RMA drive at your request for free.

Still would not use them, but they put that feature in because they started loosing too many drives and faith in people buying them.

 

[ricleo2]

I have 3 bad Western Digital Drives and one bad Seagate. The Seagate is 6 days away from the warranty ending. Neither one will power up. I will install a new power supply today, hoping that will fix the issue. Very interesting responses. Thank y'all.

 

[aigomorla]

HGST Helium drives FTW!.