Originally posted by: EvilHomer
I have a Seagate Cheetah X15 15k rpm SCSI drive ass my boot drive. that started craping out on my so I backed it up and then was not able to get back into it ...just a bunch of loud clicking noises ...I want to send it in for RMA but am jsut a little concerned about the data on the drive ..Its all backed up but I have clients SS numbers, CC data and personal info as well as som of my own personal pics and info.. does anyone know the handling practices for Hard drives ...I don't want the wrong people getting the data..
If the drive is broken to the point where you can't get data off of it (and cannot be repaired), the only way to get any of the data would be to take the drive apart in a clean room and scan the platters. Unless someone had reason to believe that your drive contained *very* valuable data, nobody would bother doing this. If your data *is* that valuable (industrial trade secrets, account numbers and passwords for secret Swiss bank accounts containing millions of dollars, etc.), you'll need to suck it up and buy a new hard drive, and destroy the original.
No reputable drive manufacturer would go sifting through a drive sent in for RMA (unless maybe the FBI/CIA told them to or something like that; you're not on a terrorist watch list, are you?

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