IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) with Certified Data Destruction

IT asset disposition (ITAD) is the secure, documented retirement of IT hardware: collecting it, destroying or clearing the drives, then reselling, recycling or returning what is left. We track every asset by serial number from pickup to final disposition, destroy drives physically, and provide certificates and chain-of-custody records that prove where each item went.

What does an ITAD service include?

Four things: collection, drive handling, disposition and proof. Collection means de-installing and packing retired servers, storage, network gear and end-user devices, then transporting them under chain of custody. Drive handling means separating every data-bearing drive and either destroying it physically or, where the hardware will be resold, having it wiped by a licensed contractor. Disposition means sending each asset down the right path: resale through certified remarketing channels, return to a lessor, or recycling. Proof means a serial-level record that ties each asset to its final outcome, plus a certificate of destruction or a contractor’s wipe report for each drive. Your IT team decides which assets are retired and confirms that any data you need has been kept before handover. We do not access, copy or recover data from the equipment. Our guide to choosing an ITAD vendor covers what to check before you sign with any provider.

How are drives handled in IT asset disposition?

Drives follow one of two routes, and both end with a certificate. If the hardware has no resale value, or your policy requires it, we destroy the drives physically by shredding or degaussing. Degaussing works only on magnetic media, so solid-state drives are shredded. If the hardware will be resold or returned to a lessor, software wiping or cryptographic erasure is performed by a licensed contractor, whose verification report is attached to the asset record. Both routes follow the methods in NIST SP 800-88. Every drive is logged by serial number before it leaves your site, and that serial number appears again on the certificate of destruction or the contractor’s report. Our article on certificate of destruction requirements covers what a certificate should contain. Leased gear has its own rules, covered in our guide to leased equipment returns.

What happens to hardware after the drives are handled?

It goes down one of four paths, chosen by you and set out in the disposition plan before pickup.

Path	What happens	Drive handling
Redeploy	Returned to you for reuse	Wiped by licensed contractor or left in place at your direction
Remarket	Resold through certified channels	Wiped or crypto-erased by licensed contractor
Lease return	Shipped back to the lessor	Wiped by licensed contractor or per lease terms
Recycle	Sent to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler	Shredded or degaussed

Remarketing recovers residual value from retired equipment. Recycling sends what cannot be reused to certified recyclers with downstream accountability, under standards such as R2 from SERI. Redeployed equipment comes back labeled and packed, ready to install. Lease returns ship to the lessor’s instructions. Each path ends with a record for your files.

What records do you receive at the end of an ITAD project?

You receive a serial-level report that ties every asset to its outcome: redeployed, resold, returned or recycled. Each data-bearing drive has a certificate of destruction or a licensed contractor’s wipe report listing its serial number, the method used and the date. The chain-of-custody record shows who held the equipment from pickup to final disposition, with signatures, seal numbers and times at every handoff. Recycling records show where materials went downstream. Together these documents answer the questions auditors and regulators ask after hardware leaves your control: where did it go, what happened to the data-bearing media, and who can prove it. Keep them with your asset register, so the retirement of each item is closed on the same record that tracked it in service. Our article on sustainable disposal of end-of-life IT assets covers the recycling side in more detail. For a full room or facility, ITAD usually runs alongside data center decommissioning.