What we do, exactly
Secure erase, every drive, free
Every storage device we buy is securely erased, at no charge.
After the purchase, not during
You are welcome to watch if you ask.
Certificate on request
A Certificate of Data Destruction, printed and handed to you before you leave. Ask for it; it is not automatic.
Keep your drive if you prefer
Sell the rest of the machine. Normal request, no argument. The offer is lower without it.
Failed drives are not bought
But we will recycle them for you free.
Business sales: both documents
Bill of Sale and Certificate of Data Destruction as standard, not on request.
Bring the drive in with the machine.
The erase is free either way, and the offer is higher with the drive in. Start with a quote.
Why we secure erase rather than shred
Physical destruction is the right answer when a drive is being retired. It is the wrong answer when a drive is being resold, and resale is what we do — shredding a working 2TB NVMe drive destroys the thing that gave it value.
Secure erase instructs the drive’s own controller to purge its contents. On an SSD that is more thorough than any file-by-file overwrite can be, because the controller can reach storage cells that the operating system cannot address.
Shredding
Right for a drive being retired. Wrong for one being resold: it destroys the thing that gave the drive its value.
Secure erase
The drive’s own controller purges its contents, including cells the operating system cannot address. The drive stays worth buying.
Why deleting your files is not enough
Deleting a file removes the pointer to it, not the data. The contents stay on the platter or in the flash until something happens to overwrite them, which is why consumer recovery tools can pull back holiday photos from a drive somebody thought was empty.
Formatting is barely better. A quick format rewrites the filing system’s index and leaves the data itself sitting exactly where it was.
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Deleting a file
Removes the pointer to it, not the data.
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A quick format
Rewrites the index and leaves the data where it was.
This is not a scare tactic and it is not unique to us — it is simply how block storage works. It is also why "I formatted it first" is not the protection most people believe it is.
SSDs and hard drives are different problems
A mechanical hard drive stores bits magnetically in a fixed physical location, so overwriting a sector genuinely replaces what was there.
An SSD does not work that way. Its controller constantly moves data around to spread wear evenly, and it keeps spare capacity the operating system cannot see. That means an overwrite pass can leave copies of old data in cells nothing outside the drive can address — which is exactly why the controller’s own secure erase command is the right tool for flash storage.
Mechanical hard drive
Bits are stored magnetically in a fixed physical location. Overwriting a sector genuinely replaces what was there.
SSD
The controller moves data around to spread wear and keeps spare capacity the operating system cannot see. The controller’s own secure erase is the right tool.
The standard we work to
The erase follows the NIST 800-88 guidelines for media sanitization, the standard for the job. What you get is the process above, done every time to that guideline, and a certificate documenting it if you want one.
If you are selling as a business
Everything above applies unchanged, with one addition: a business sale carries both documents as standard rather than on request. That holds for a handful of machines carried in and for a whole office we collect on site.
The paperwork, the collection, and the standard we work to are set out on the business decommissioning page.
Read further
Each of these takes one part of the above and goes properly into it.
- What secure erase actually doesThe method itself, and what it does not do.
- Why deleting files does not remove your dataPointers, indexes and why recovery tools work.
- Can you securely erase an SSD?Why flash needs a different method from a hard drive.
- How to wipe a drive yourselfOptional, but here is the right way if you would rather.
- The Certificate of Data DestructionWhat it documents, and what it deliberately does not claim.
Common questions
Should I wipe my drive before bringing it in?
You do not need to — we secure erase everything we buy, free. If you would feel better doing it yourself first, that is completely fine and it changes nothing about the offer.
Can I watch my drive being erased?
Yes, if you ask. It happens after the purchase is complete rather than during the evaluation, so tell us at the start that you want to see it and we will arrange it.
What is on the Certificate of Data Destruction?
It documents that the device was securely erased and when. Ask for it and we print it before you leave — it is not issued automatically, so you do need to ask.
What if my drive is dead — can you still destroy the data?
We do not buy drives that fail their health check, so there is nothing for us to erase as part of a sale. You can still bring it in for free recycling.