Generally, two things can happen to hard drives: Physically Destroyed Typically, hard drives get destroyed when: PC's that have no use are broken down for recycling, a customer insists they are destroyed, or a hard drive is faulty and cannot be erased using software (see below) during our refurbishment process. Data Erased Using Software. When hard drives go to our workshops for Refurbishment they are erased of all previous user-data. Using specialized software certified to Department of Defense Standards you can feel confident that confidential information won't fall into the wrong hands.