Hmmm... From what I remember, volatile hard disk drive cache is used as a buffer. Without being powered up this will be empty. Non-Volatile memory on the hard drive board tells the board how to read that platters... this info is locked in and can't be overwritten without knowing what you are doing and it doesn't hold any user data... just machine code... just like the bios on the motherboard.
I am contracted to destroy hard drives, first I do a wipe on the drive, then I disassemble them, then I degauss the platters, and finally I shear the platters into at least 4 parts. All the platters are mixed together in a tote and taken in for aluminum scrap... Yes, if someone could find all the parts of the platters and study them under an electron microscope, and they can reverse all the other things I do, they may be able to pull data... but not likely. I have no worries about the PC boards leaking anything...
If a data thief were to gain access to personal data with my boards it wouldn't be because of anything I did, it would be because of the person who thought all they had to do was pull the pc board off a drive to make it secure. That would be a very bad practice. I hope no one here does that and thinks it's sufficient... at least hit the drive with a sledge if you don't want to open them... just to screw up the bearings and bend the platters...
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