Skip to main content

Seagate Offers Data Erasure Solutions

Seagate is best known for manufacturing hard disk drives and other storage devices for use in computers, servers, mobile devices, media players, and more—in fact, the company just announced a new self-encrypting drive for enterprise environments and a 1 TB hard drive with a Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) interface. But the company not only enables consumers and companies to keep their data—it helps them wipe it out, too. Through subsidiary Seagate Recovery Services the company has just announced Seagate Data Erasure, software solutions that are designed to let users and companies wipe their drives clean before they’re replaced, sold, or decommissioned from service.

“Our internal studies show that more than 50 percent of drives returned from customer data centers were not properly erased and still contained corporate data,” said Seagate Recovery Services president Jay Remley, in a statement. “With the growing amount of information kept on personal computers, sensitive customer and corporate data must be securely managed from the time it is created until it is destroyed.”

Recommended Videos

As many computer users know, simply deleting a file from a drive doesn’t actually destroy the data that file contained: it simply marks the space where the file was stored as available for re-use. The increasing capacity of everyday hard drives means it can be weeks or months before those drive sectors are ever re-used, making some or all of a deleted file’s data easily recoverable via “undelete” programs that simply scan for available blocks that contain information. For the truly paranoid, even re-initializing a drive and overwriting the empty areas isn’t enough, since computer forensic experts can sometimes retrieve data even from areas that have been overwritten.

Seagate Data Erasure products are intended to let businesses, organizations, and even end users let go of their old hard drives without letting go of their data: the products offer 13 secure erasure methodologies including methods certified by the NSA, and Department of Defense, NATO, and the NCSC. Seagate Data Erasure is available in a USB edition—users can just pop it into a PC to access and eras a disk drive—along with a Network Edition for IT departments, and a Disk Recycler edition for processing large numbers of disks via a network. And, even better, Seagate Data Erasure will provide a “Certificate of Erasure” so organizations can have assurance and confidence the drives have been thoroughly wiped…and maybe have a piece of paper to wave around in court if their data is suddenly found running loose on the Internet.

Seagate Recovery Services hasn’t offered any pricing for the system; instead, interested customers are encouraged to call for a quote.

Geoff Duncan
Former Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
OpenAI Academy offers free AI skills workshops for all knowledge levels
OpenAI ChatGPT image

OpenAI has established a free public resource called ‘OpenAI Academy,’ geared toward providing AI education to all knowledge levels.

Among the free offerings, the brand will provide users a mix of online and in-person events, including hands-on workshops and peer discussions, among other digital content, OpenAI said in a press release. 

Read more
Google accidentally deleted users’ data, but there’s no apology in sight
Samsung Galaxy S24 in Marble Gray showing Google Maps.

Google Maps users started complaining a couple of days ago that their Timeline data had disappeared -- and last night, a Google spokesperson confirmed it had been deleted.

Speaking to The Verge, the spokesperson said it was a technical issue that caused the accidental deletion, but anyone who didn't have backups turned on won't be able to get their data back. This sucks for affected users since the Timeline feature is all about keeping track of where you've been over long periods of time.

Read more
Claude AI catches up with ChatGPT by offering a new search tool
Claude on a MacBook Pro.

If you're looking for a new search tool, Claude may help. The AI assistant now features a new web search tool that allows users to access current events and information to enhance their results. The new search feature provides direct citations, allowing you to verify sources easily. Furthermore, Claude organizes and presents relevant sources in a conversational format, making the results easier to digest.

Anthropic states that the new search feature is handy for various users and use cases. These include sales teams seeking to analyze industry trends, financial analysts looking for up-to-date market data, and researchers who need content for grant proposals and literature reviews. Additionally, everyday shoppers can benefit from the tool as it helps them compare product features and prices.

Read more