Enabling a Circular Economy Through Data Sanitization

Data sanitisation permanently and irreversibly removes information from storage media, so it cannot be reconstructed by any known method. It prevents unauthorised access to sensitive data, supports compliance with legal and industry requirements and reduces exposure to data breaches.

According to IEEE 2883, there are three categories of sanitisation: destruct, clear and purge. These methods differ in how completely they remove data and whether drives can be reused. Seagate’s sanitisation offerings are designed to meet purge-level requirements, which provide the highest standard of data removal while enabling reuse.

Destroy

• Physically destroys device components through shredding, degaussing or incineration
• Data is irrecoverable, even with advanced forensic tools
• Drives are rendered unusable

Clear

• Uses logical techniques to remove data from user-addressable storage areas
• Typically performed using overwrite or reset commands
• Drives can be reused

Purge

• Uses logical or physical techniques to remove data from both addressable and non-addressable storage areas
• Methods include cryptographic erase, block erase and specialised sanitise commands
• Data recovery is infeasible, even for expert adversaries
• Drives can be reused

Destruct is typically used when reuse is not a priority and maximum assurance is required. By eliminating the drive entirely, it removes any possibility of data exposure, but it also removes any opportunity to recover value from the device.

Clear supports reuse but leaves gaps in coverage. Because it focuses only on user-accessible areas, data outside those regions may persist, which can introduce risk in environments with higher security or compliance requirements.

In contrast, purge is designed for environments that need both strong data protection and the ability to reuse drives. By addressing all areas of the device, it closes the gaps left by other methods and supports more stringent security and regulatory expectations.

At Seagate, purge is the primary sanitisation method used in recertification workflows. It enables data to be removed to a level where recovery is infeasible while allowing drives to be safely returned to use.

All three Seagate sanitisation offerings are third-party certified at the purge level, providing validated assurance that drives meet industry-recognised requirements.

Seagate Secure mobile sanitisation is a portable solution for environments that need to sanitise smaller quantities of drives.

Using a Seagate disk depot device, customers can process two to eight SAS or SATA hard drives per cycle. This makes it well suited for distributed environments, remote sites, labs and facilities without large-scale infrastructure.

Mobile sanitisation applies purge-level commands across both user-addressable and non user-addressable areas, ensuring thorough sanitisation aligned with industry standards. With more than 700 units deployed worldwide, it provides a proven and scalable option for reliable sanitisation.

Rack-level sanitisation is a high-throughput solution for environments managing large drive inventories.

It enables simultaneous sanitisation of multiple hard drives within existing rack infrastructure, including JBOD and RBOD configurations — provided RAID groups are removed so sanitise commands function correctly.

Using purge-based commands, this approach strengthens data security while streamlining operations for data centres, cloud service providers and enterprise IT teams.

Seagate has demonstrated this capability at scale:

• 300,000+ drives across 57,000 servers in a production data centre
• 19,000 drives across 100+ servers in warehouse operations

Rack-level sanitisation delivers a repeatable, efficient approach to lifecycle data management at scale.

Seagate integrates purge-level sanitisation directly into its factory recertification workflow.

This process uses proprietary commands independently validated and purge-certified by OnTrack, Seagate’s trusted sanitisation partner. These commands ensure all user-addressable and non user-addressable areas are sanitised before refurbishment, testing and redeployment.

By embedding certified sanitisation into recertification, Seagate ensures recertified drives contain no residual data while extending product life and supporting sustainability goals.

All Seagate sanitisation solutions undergo rigorous validation and third-party certification to confirm they meet purge-level requirements.

This gives customers confidence that:

• Sensitive data has been irreversibly removed
• Sanitisation aligns with IEEE 2883 and other industry standards
• Drives can be safely reused or recycled

Verification and certification are essential to secure lifecycle management, helping organisations reduce both security and regulatory risk.

Seagate’s data sanitisation initiatives reflect a broader commitment to security, compliance and environmental responsibility.

By delivering standards-aligned purge-level sanitisation across mobile, rack-level and recertification workflows, Seagate helps customers protect their data while enabling safe reuse and responsible recycling.

As sustainability becomes more central to technology strategy, transparent and effective sanitisation will remain essential. Seagate will continue to innovate — supporting trust, performance and responsible stewardship of the world’s data storage infrastructure.