If you sent it back to the manufacturer, it'll more than likely be destructively tested (erased by the test), parted out, or have the circuit board swapped making recovery just about impossible. I read years ago about how the companies Seagate/WD,/etc refurb drives. They take the drives in and sort depending on code reported. Most drives come back with controller board related errors and the boards are swapped and the drives go through a long burn-in process and destructive testing. If they still fail, they are shredded. If the code indicated an internal disc or HDA error, the controller is stripped and tested and the rest of the drive is shredded. They don't spend a hell of a lot of time on trying to 'fix' the drives. It's about getting them to pass the test and get 're-certified' and boxed and shipped out again.
The larger drives, according to the article, the 'big data' expensive SCSI and FC based drives that fail the first round of tests may go through a second round where they do more to try to rehab them, but the average 'Best Buy' special isn't given much work to try to fix it.
Any data is long gone.
Now for Best Buy (I realize yours didn't go there) or any other vendor, the chances of people picking through your stuff is higher. I found a guys extensive kiddie porn stash on a computer that was brought in for repair at a place I subed at. I tested the drive and it passed and then started looking at what was on the drive and found that a certain directory was taking up nearly all of it. *surprise* We turned him in. The 'crack prosecutor' plea bargained the case and he got off...
Anyway, if you didn't have anything of value, don't worry, be happy?
EDIT: Amazon direct? Wow. Hard to tell... I'd assume that it would be 'RTV'ed' (returned to vendor)
