You're right, this offers no protection while the server is running. But: Hard disk die. Usually just a few sectors become unreadable and the remaining part is

You're right, this offers no protection while the server is running. But: Hard disk die. Usually just a few sectors become unreadable and the remaining part is still accessible. Sometimes you can even read all the data, but S.M.A.R.T. is indicating an impending failure. Of course you want to swap out such a drive as soon as possible. Hopefully the old drive will be disposed of responsibly and securely. But do you want to depend on that? I don't. If I have a failing drive and I can't wipe most of it, I keep it instead of sending it in for warranty replacement. I have come by several old servers and hard disks that still contained non-empty partitions from the previous owner / user. If that happens, I just wipe the drive before reformatting it. But I always wonder: would they do the same if they got an unwiped drive of mine?