Question Is it dangerous to use used/scavenged HDD/SSD after format?

[Sue me Song Sue Me]

I usually do some scavenging in my way to home, and collect Books, VHS and E-waste like stone aged CPU, GPU and most likely HDD (and SSD if lucky) most of I gathered seems functional, but my brother says I should just throw away instead of using it on to our PC, he thinks it may contain some virus or some infected firmware(I literally don't know about this so I couldn't clearly remember what he said but he mentioned firmware. just saying if the firmware is can't be infected or so...) even it hasn't, still it is too dangerous to use it on to 80,000USD worth account/computer(he uses RTX 4090 so the rest of it must be Steam and paid programs) he is the person who too much worried about IWID ban, VAC ban and such things so I think he might just be paranoid about this.
Is there a any threat to use used/scavenged HDD/SSD after format? And if it is, there is no way to use it on to safe way?

 

[JeffreyP55]

I usually do some scavenging in my way to home, and collect Books, VHS and E-waste like stone aged CPU, GPU and most likely HDD (and SSD if lucky) most of I gathered seems functional, but my brother says I should just throw away instead of using it on to our PC, he thinks it may contain some virus or some infected firmware(I literally don't know about this so I couldn't clearly remember what he said but he mentioned firmware. just saying if the firmware is can't be infected or so...) even it hasn't, still it is too dangerous to use it on to 80,000USD worth account/computer(he uses RTX 4090 so the rest of it must be Steam and paid programs) he is the person who too much worried about IWID ban, VAC ban and such things so I think he might just be paranoid about this.
Is there a any threat to use used/scavenged HDD/SSD after format? And if it is, there is no way to use it on to safe way?

If you are scared to use it, wipe the drive don't just format it.

 

[TerryLaze]

If you are scared to use it, wipe the drive don't just format it.

Well, that doesn't help, if you are doing it from within windows then it already had a chance to infect your system.
You can use boot disks to wipe drives and even better boot disks on an old PC.

In general there is a very low risk in using old tech that you don't know where it came from, mostly if it failed the wrong way it could damage your sata ports or whatever port it connects to.

 

[JeffreyP55]

Well, that doesn't help, if you are doing it from within windows then it already had a chance to infect your system.
You can use boot disks to wipe drives and even better boot disks on an old PC.

In general there is a very low risk in using old tech that you don't know where it came from, mostly if it failed the wrong way it could damage your sata ports or whatever port it connects to.

I missed the part about the virus.

 

[USAFRet]

If you just did a 'format' within File Explorer, you potentially skipped over any partitions that didn't have a drive letter.
Those do not appear in File Explorer, and are left as original and untouched.

ANY used drive is suspect.


Further, what would you use a scavenged HDD for? Would you trust it to hold your data?

 

[Bob.B]

I usually do some scavenging in my way to home, and collect Books, VHS and E-waste like stone aged CPU, GPU and most likely HDD (and SSD if lucky) most of I gathered seems functional, but my brother says I should just throw away instead of using it on to our PC, he thinks it may contain some virus or some infected firmware(I literally don't know about this so I couldn't clearly remember what he said but he mentioned firmware. just saying if the firmware is can't be infected or so...) even it hasn't, still it is too dangerous to use it on to 80,000USD worth account/computer(he uses RTX 4090 so the rest of it must be Steam and paid programs) he is the person who too much worried about IWID ban, VAC ban and such things so I think he might just be paranoid about this.
Is there a any threat to use used/scavenged HDD/SSD after format? And if it is, there is no way to use it on to safe way?

Considering the cost of a new hdd/ssd is it worth the risk?