FYI: Refurbished Drives Aren't Always Cleared

[Ketchup]

I bought a couple refurbished drives recently. One of them caught be eye because it was already partitioned:

So I spent just a couple minutes looking and sure enough, it looks like some data would have been found:

So if at all possible, wipe the drive, or at least the partition before sending it in. Your data could end up in someone else's hands!

 

[LTC8K6]

Probably means it was not really checked before they shipped it...

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think that it would be useful to make a very clear distinction, between mfg RMA processes and refurbishment, and vendors that acquire drives from old server machines, and SHOULD be responsible for data-destruction, and then they re-sell the "good" drives back on the open market as "refurbs". Sometimes, the latter misses a drive.

 

[XavierMace]

I think it's funny that you think there's a difference. I've dealt with no shortage of manufacturer "refurbished" items that were either DOA or clearly not properly "refurbished".

 

[BarkingGhostar]

What were the files and could they have been put there as part of the reseller refurb process?

 

[Ketchup]

I didn't go far enough to see what they were. It's none of my business and I didn't waste the time. But if they weren't dilligent enough to remove partitions, I doubt files that were found were merely something WD (or whoever) put on the drive.

 

[tcsenter]

I didn't go far enough to see what they were. It's none of my business and I didn't waste the time. But if they weren't dilligent enough to remove partitions, I doubt files that were found were merely something WD (or whoever) put on the drive.

Using DeepScan Recuva will 'find' at least 21 "files" used for/by NTFS file system; $MFT and mirror, $Badclus, $Logfile, $Attrdef, $Bitmap, $Secure, etc. Your scan indicates 23 files found, I'm betting those are it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Another possibility - some "secure erase/delete/wipe" software, may write a "destruction certificate" to the HDD in question, to authenticate that it was wiped successfully.

 

[Ketchup]

Using DeepScan Recuva will 'find' at least 21 "files" used for/by NTFS file system; $MFT and mirror, $Badclus, $Logfile, $Attrdef, $Bitmap, $Secure, etc. Your scan indicates 23 files found, I'm betting those are it.

That's assuming the remaining two thirds of the disk it hadn't searched yet contained zero files. I'm not saying you're wrong, I am just saying probability isn't in favor of your "bet".

 

[tcsenter]

Recuva DeepScan finds those NTFS files fairly quick, then could spend an additional 30 minutes finding nothing else. Your scan progress indicates it has already searched a quarter of the drive and those are the only files it found thus far. Based on this there is no reason to suspect those files are anything but the NTFS housekeeping stuff.