*www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?loc...toid=f52d29e293eae110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD
This statement provides Seagate customers with an overview of what happens to data on products when returned to Seagate. In order to protect your privacy and other interests in data, you should delete all data, or as much as possible, prior to returning any product to Seagate. Seagate realizes, however, that you may not be able to erase certain data on returned products. In any event, Seagate will take the steps described in this statement to protect the physical security of such products and, if applicable, overwrite data on products repaired by Seagate.
Seagate has coordinated with the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) to ensure that any products repaired by Seagate are in compliance with or exceed the appropriate U.S. Government specifications. The United States Department of Defense (DOD) provides certain standards regarding drive sanitation. The relevant specification, contained in the 1995 manual DOD 5220.22M, defines that an accepted drive sanitation specification is an “overwrite of all addressable locations with a character, its complement and then a random character and verify.” Seagate has verified that not only does its repair process overwrite user addressable locations a minimum of three times with verifications, but the process also overwrites the non-user accessible locations with multiple character sets. Seagate uses random characters, high-frequency patterns and digital zeros patterns to match the drive design technologies.
The Seagate repair process ensures that all data is overwritten in a way that exceeds the DOD specifications. Seagate’s process of overwriting data may be considered an advantage among those in the health industry user community (e.g., HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, April 2003, enforces patient data privacy and confidentiality), the financial community, the government user community, and other users that deal with sensitive data.
In addition to its process of overwriting data, Seagate also takes steps to ensure the collection, warehousing, shipping, testing, refurbishing and scrapping of disk drives meet Seagate security standards which generally exceed industry averages.
-----------------------------------------
Posted again:
-----------------------------------------
PS: couldn't find similar info from WD site!
