Best way to erase a dead HD?

[TheBoyBlunder]

I've got two quantums that just died, and I need to erase them before I send them in for an RMA. Would I be able to just plug 'em in, fire up window washer and let it take care of erasure, or is there something else I could do?

 

[WarCon]

Pron? How dead are they? It would take an intensely strong magnet to erase them and I am assuming physical damage is out of the question.

You might have to send them the way they are, if they won't be detected and addressed correctly.

 

[stompah]

If you are that worried you could take them to a metal scrap business and have them demagnetized for you

 

[BoberFett]

Whenever you have dead hard drives be sure to take them apart. They've got really cool magnets in them.

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Well...I'm sure the magnets are really cool, BoberFett, but both dead drives are still under warranty, so I'd rather RMA 'em. I was wondering if it'd still be possible to back things up and off the drives?
I was considering an extrapolation of the freezer trick to do this. I would get an old foam cooler, fill it partway with dry ice, tuck the drive in question into the dry ice so only the cable plugins are showing (and the drive would be in a plastic baggie, of course), and then back up like a madman. Would that work? Or would it just be an expensive exercise with dry ice?

 

[wetcat007]

stick it in a power tranformer on some power lines, make sure u wear thick rubber gloves.

 

[kursplat]

stick it in a power tranformer on some power lines, make sure u wear thick rubber gloves.

kidding i hope ? if not your an idiot. if you were to short the drive or yourself between the hots or to ground the info on the drives will be the least of your worries. example : . professionals die working on power lines all the time. think your better ?
the drive mfg doesn't care what info you have on your drive. they don't have time to look at it , nor do the people who handle the RMA have a reason to care. they get too many drives returned to waste time seeing what goodies they can find.
a forum search will show you that even if you wipe it , there is no garranty the info is unrecoverable.
just send it in andget on with your life
good luck

 

[EeyoreX]

the drive mfg doesn't care what info you have on your drive. they don't have time to look at it , nor do the people who handle the RMA have a reason to care. they get too many drives returned to waste time seeing what goodies they can find.
a forum search will show you that even if you wipe it , there is no garranty the info is unrecoverable.
just send it in andget on with your life
good luck

Also, if you are worried about your drive becoming a refurb unit later, the manufacturer will write zeros to the drive before reselling it, thus erasing your data. Of course, if someone really wanted to see what you have on your hard drive, be that porn, a million mp3s, or credit card numbers, if they are determined enough, they will get it. I honestly don't think the manufacturer cares what is on your hard drive, nor are they going to call the porn cops, the RIAA or run up your credit card even if they did have the time to treat your drive to the extensive work of recovering data. However, if you can access it, you can back the data up. Why use dry ice to do the "freezer trick" when, interestingly enough, a freezer will work. Without the added expense of a cooler. And dry ice. For something that is not gauranteed anyhow. (The freezer trick doesn't always do the trick). Bottom line is that if you are that worried about the data on the drive, I recommend fire. Lots of it. That'll destroy anything.

\Dan

 

[fell8]

I think you might be screwed. The drive is dead so you can't access any way, right? Which means you have to resort to physical means to to erase it. That may very well void the warranty. Good luck, though!

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Ok, I'm very confused with those drives now. I've been able to access them in safe mode, copy everything I want, and I'm currently erasing them. I guess they weren't quite as dead as I thought...*shrug*. I'll try stressing them later, I suppose.

 

[fell8]

Be sure to use "shredding" software to insure a complete erase. I believe Spybot has a shredding feature, there are many others also available.

 

[Chaotic42]

Write this to the drive:

-1s
-0s
-1s
-0s
-Alternating 1s and 0s
-A matrix of 1s and 0s created by using random numbers

Now, use a very powerful magnet on the drive for about 10 minutes, then reverse the steps.

This is meant to be a joke, but I'm sure that would work very well, assuming you could keep it alive that long.