I'm in the process of retiring some old server hardware and I've usually handled the hard drives securely by shredding them before donating the rest to a local IT recycling company. However, my support partner has suggested I consider selling the hardware to Vibrant Technologies, who quoted me $4,000. They've assured me they will securely wipe the disks and provide a certificate of destruction. Has anyone had any experience with this company? It's not a huge sum, but I'd like to get some opinions on whether this option seems safe and trustworthy!
4 Answers
They should definitely be able to provide you with a certificate for data destruction, likely from a reputable source like Blancco.
I’d recommend checking out their methods for data erasure since I couldn’t find many details on their site. Overall, they seem decent, but it’s worth digging a bit deeper to ensure they have solid processes in place.
You actually might not need to shred the drives if you've encrypted them. Just deleting the keys from the TPM should be enough to satisfy audits. So maybe consider that if you're worried about data safety!
Why not just sell the hardware without the disks? You could potentially get a better deal!
I asked about that, but they didn’t give me a quote without the disks. Seems like it’s not worth their effort.
I honestly dislike buying off-lease equipment missing parts, especially drives that are specific to certain vendors. If they're SSDs, I'd advise doing a secure erase. There's a lot of great hardware that’s discarded when some of us would love to buy it!
Oh, and don’t forget to wipe the BIOS password too!