Seagate opens an official store on eBay to sell refurbished hard drives

Seagate has opened an official storefront on eBay to sell its re-certified hard drives. The storage drive manufacturer obtains used hard drives through its Hard Drive Circularity Program, which evaluates them to determine whether they fit for re-certification. With the aim to reduce e-waste and expand its sustainability program, Seagate assures that its refurbished drives are of 'top quality.'

As a founding member of the Circular Drive Initiative-a partnership of global leaders in digital storage, data centers, sustainability, and blockchain collaborating to reduce e-waste—Seagate is committed to enabling the secure reuse of storage devices and reducing hard drive shredding. Hard drive shredding entails breaking down a hard drive into tiny pieces so that data cannot be recovered. As rare earth materials contained in those parts cannot be reused, hard drive shredding harms the environment and is not a sustainable practice.

Since data control remains the biggest obstacle to embracing hard drive circularity, Seagate brings a trusted level of data sanitization and comprehensive erasure to its factory-recertified drives. The sanitization and erasure practices prevent data recovery after decommissioning, adhering to industry standards such as IEEE 2883, NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1, and ISO/IEC 27040:2015.

“Tens of millions of hard drives are still being shredded yearly, and we need to reduce the use of destructive sanitization methods,” said Jason Feist, Seagate's SVP, Products and Markets. “Seagate builds circularity into the drives we bring to market. The collaboration with eBay will increase the amount of data that can be stored on top quality, recertified hard drives.”

In FY2023, Seagate extended the life of approximately 1.19 million hard drives and solid-state drives through its circularity program, preventing 553 metric tons of e-waste. Seagate aims to minimize e-waste by placing quality hard drives back into service and extending their product lifecycles.

“eBay is proud to work with Seagate on this exciting partnership,” said Renée Morin, eBay’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Refurbishing items gives them a longer life and generally reduces greenhouse gas emissions. In our efforts to be a responsible, sustainable marketplace, this collaboration shows that we all have a part to play.”

The new Seagate storefront on eBay offers various hard drive options that can be trusted because they are recertified by Seagate and come with a limited warranty.