ITAD & refurbishment: a data erasure guide
ITAD shops live or die on one thing: being able to prove to their own clients that a drive was properly erased. Here's how to build that process.
IT asset disposition (ITAD) and refurbishment are high-volume, low-margin businesses where a single missed drive can cost a client relationship. The erasure itself is the easy part; the evidence is what clients actually pay for.
What clients expect
- Purge before resale — anything leaving your facility should be erased to Purge level, not just Clear.
- A certificate per batch — clients want a certificate of destruction for every lot you process.
- Serial-number-level traceability — the record should tie each drive to a job and a client.
Why SMART data matters for refurbishers
When you resell a drive, a later dispute about whether it was healthy is expensive. Capturing pre- and post-wipe SMART data proves the drive was functioning at the moment of erasure — protecting you in warranty and quality disputes. It's supporting evidence that costs nothing to collect.
A repeatable process
- Log each drive at intake with its serial number.
- Assign a Chain of Custody ID per job or client batch.
- Run the wipe, capturing SMART before and after.
- Generate a certificate per batch and file it alongside the source reports.
tScrub fits this flow directly: one script handles erasure, SMART capture, and the chain-of-custody report, and the dashboard turns reports into certificates.
FAQ
Can I brand the certificate with my own company?
Certificates are issued against the tScrub platform. For white-label needs, talk to the tScrub team — enterprise plans are designed around regulated fleets and custom requirements.
Do I need to destroy drives I can't erase?
Yes — failed or locked drives must be physically destroyed, and you still want a record of their serial numbers and disposition.