Data

Data sanitisation

Every drive that passes testing is sanitised to NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1, Purge level, before it is listed — and the certificate is issued against that drive's serial number.

  • Clear Overwrites the user-addressable space. Leaves reallocated and overprovisioned areas untouched. Not what we use.
  • Purge — what we use Firmware-level commands that reach mapped-out sectors, overprovisioned space and host-protected areas. Recovery is considered infeasible even in a laboratory.
  • Destroy Physical destruction. The right answer for media that must never be reused, and by definition not applicable to a drive being resold.

Who sanitises, and how

The drives we sell are reconditioned and sanitised by our supplier before they reach us, to NIST SP 800-88 Purge. Purge is the level at which recovery is considered infeasible using state-of-the-art laboratory techniques — executed with the ATA Secure Erase or Sanitize command set, firmware-level operations that reach areas a logical overwrite cannot: sectors that have been mapped out, the drive's overprovisioned space, and any host-protected or device-configuration overlay areas.

We confirm on intake that no recoverable data is present before a drive is listed.

We do not cite DoD 5220.22-M. It was retired as a specified method years ago, and quoting it reads as dated to anyone who works in this field.

What we can and cannot evidence

We are describing our supplier's process, not certifying it ourselves. We do not perform the wipe and we do not issue a per-drive sanitisation certificate. If your compliance records need documented chain-of-custody sanitisation evidence, ask us before ordering and we will tell you honestly what we can supply.

Buying from us, not selling to us

This page describes what has been done to drives before they reach you. If you have decommissioned hardware of your own that needs sanitising and documenting, that is a different conversation and one we are happy to have.