External Seagate drive fell on carpet and is dead, concerned about security of data.

[dak125]

My 750 GB drive fell about a foot or so onto carpet and it appears to be dead. Apparently I'm not the only one that has done this: http://forums.seagate.com/stx/..._date_ascending&page=3

My concern is that of the data on the drive. I searched on the Seagate forum and there was mention from one of the representatives that the drives are dismantled, wiped clean etc., but the fact remains that these drives will be refurbished. I'm sure I'm being paranoid but I simply am not comfortable with the idea of my personal data, documents, images, emails etc., being available to anyone that has access to my drive.

My computer won't recognize the drive, it makes a spinning noise every 5 seconds but, based upon everything I've read, the drive is physically damaged. I don't want to dismantle the case to get to the drive because it will void my warranty.

Thoughts?

 

[RebateMonger]

I'd think that Seagate had a pretty good way of wiping platters before sending out refurbished disks. If not, it'd be a pretty good lawsuit.

In any case, I doubt that Seagate will reuse platters that have been damaged by a drop. They likely test the motor and circuit board and if those are both good, they replace all the platters and heads.

 

[Modelworks]

The only way to wipe a non functional drive without opening the case would be to use very strong magnets. 20lb + strength type recommended, fridge magnets are too weak to be sure. They sell hard drive erasers that wipe drives in a single pass and the only thing they contain is a permanent magnet. I used the magnet below to wipe some 80GB drives. The important thing I was told was the movement of the magnet, not just to stick it on and take it off.
If you can get a magnet place it on the case parallel with the drive and move it several times in a circular motion and then back and forth straight across. Be very careful handling these magnets, they will wipe credit cards from several inches away. And two of these magnets side by side can pinch skin/finger if caught in between.

http://www.magnet4less.com/pro...th=1_5&products_id=239





One other tip, don't use this for drives you intend to resell or reuse. The older drives seem to handle it okay, but newer drives, 250GB plus have information stored on the platters to make the drives work. If you wipe them with this method they will have to be sent back to the manufacturer. Only recommended for drives that are broken or useless.

 

[dak125]

Thanks for both of your responses!

Originally posted by: Modelworks
The only way to wipe a non functional drive without opening the case would be to use very strong magnets. 20lb + strength type recommended, fridge magnets are too weak to be sure. They sell hard drive erasers that wipe drives in a single pass and the only thing they contain is a permanent magnet. I used the magnet below to wipe some 80GB drives. The important thing I was told was the movement of the magnet, not just to stick it on and take it off.
If you can get a magnet place it on the case parallel with the drive and move it several times in a circular motion and then back and forth straight across. Be very careful handling these magnets, they will wipe credit cards from several inches away. And two of these magnets side by side can pinch skin/finger if caught in between.

http://www.magnet4less.com/pro...th=1_5&products_id=239

In regards to this magnet idea, do you think the magnet linked would be strong enough to erase a 750gb external drive? Do you think it's strong enough to get through the case?

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: dak125
T

In regards to this magnet idea, do you think the magnet linked would be strong enough to erase a 750gb external drive? Do you think it's strong enough to get through the case?

It is hard to say. I'm not familiar with that enclosure so I don't know what it is like on the inside or what would block the magnetic field. If you used two magnets , one positioned on each side of the drive enclosure so that it parallels the drive inside and both magnets are able to hold to each other using the magnetic field that is passing through the case, then I am fairly confident that it would corrupt any data on the drive.

 

[dak125]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: dak125
T

In regards to this magnet idea, do you think the magnet linked would be strong enough to erase a 750gb external drive? Do you think it's strong enough to get through the case?

It is hard to say. I'm not familiar with that enclosure so I don't know what it is like on the inside or what would block the magnetic field. If you used two magnets , one positioned on each side of the drive enclosure so that it parallels the drive inside and both magnets are able to hold to each other using the magnetic field that is passing through the case, then I am fairly confident that it would corrupt any data on the drive.

Just for reference, here's the drive:

http://skattertech.com/media/2...-freeagent-desktop.jpg

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: dak125
Thanks for both of your responses!

Originally posted by: Modelworks
The only way to wipe a non functional drive without opening the case would be to use very strong magnets. 20lb + strength type recommended, fridge magnets are too weak to be sure. They sell hard drive erasers that wipe drives in a single pass and the only thing they contain is a permanent magnet. I used the magnet below to wipe some 80GB drives. The important thing I was told was the movement of the magnet, not just to stick it on and take it off.
If you can get a magnet place it on the case parallel with the drive and move it several times in a circular motion and then back and forth straight across. Be very careful handling these magnets, they will wipe credit cards from several inches away. And two of these magnets side by side can pinch skin/finger if caught in between.

http://www.magnet4less.com/pro...th=1_5&products_id=239

In regards to this magnet idea, do you think the magnet linked would be strong enough to erase a 750gb external drive? Do you think it's strong enough to get through the case?

Unless the case materials are paramagnetic or ferromagnetic (aluminum is neither) then it doesn't matter whether the case is present or not, what matters is the physical distance the platters are from the magnet. The magnetic domains on your platter are impacted by the influence of the magnetic field fluctuation - i.e. magnetic field strength as a function of time.

This is why "moving" a permanent magnet is as important as the absolute strength of the magnet. The stronger the magnetic field at the location of the data bits (the platter surface and sub-surface) the more rapidly the existing magnetic field orientation is changed.

That said, I could swear I have read articles on the topic in the past couple of years in which they pretty much debunked this approach to wiping your data because the necessary field strength and necessary speed at which you must manually move the magnet (drives are used to 7200rpms, think about what that means for your arms to move that magnet in realtime) are just not practical to wipe a the modern day harddrive.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

That said, I could swear I have read articles on the topic in the past couple of years in which they pretty much debunked this approach to wiping your data because the necessary field strength and necessary speed at which you must manually move the magnet (drives are used to 7200rpms, think about what that means for your arms to move that magnet in realtime) are just not practical to wipe a the modern day harddrive.

A lot of people who did these test just stuck a magnet on the drive and left it there for several hours . They didn't move the magnet around which is the important part. The other thing a lot of people comment about is that drives contain strong magnets so why doesn't that destroy data ? The reason is because the poles of the magnet are not directed towards the platters of the drive.

It really doesn't matter what rpm the drive is. When you apply a magnetic field you will switch any opposing bits to the field of the magnet, making binary words like 1010 switch to 1111 or 0101 making the data corrupted.

The DOD allows permanent magnet erasure of drives.
The machines that do the erasing only require a single pass of the drive through the machine .

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Idontcare

That said, I could swear I have read articles on the topic in the past couple of years in which they pretty much debunked this approach to wiping your data because the necessary field strength and necessary speed at which you must manually move the magnet (drives are used to 7200rpms, think about what that means for your arms to move that magnet in realtime) are just not practical to wipe a the modern day harddrive.

A lot of people who did these test just stuck a magnet on the drive and left it there for several hours . They didn't move the magnet around which is the important part. The other thing a lot of people comment about is that drives contain strong magnets so why doesn't that destroy data ? The reason is because the poles of the magnet are not directed towards the platters of the drive.

It really doesn't matter what rpm the drive is. When you apply a magnetic field you will switch any opposing bits to the field of the magnet, making binary words like 1010 switch to 1111 or 0101 making the data corrupted.

The DOD allows permanent magnet erasure of drives.
The machines that do the erasing only require a single pass of the drive through the machine .

Hmm, I carry spare HDD's in with my test equipment which includes 65lb, 100lb and 175lb magnets and I've never had a bit of data loss. I've even pulled the magnets off the HDD's before and not had an issue.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

http://www.google.com/search?h...disposal&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

 

[RebateMonger]

n.m.

 

[Old Hippie]

I don't want to dismantle the case to get to the drive because it will void my warranty.

Thoughts?

Roll-ur-own and eliminate this type of problem?

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
[

Hmm, I carry spare HDD's in with my test equipment which includes 65lb, 100lb and 175lb magnets and I've never had a bit of data loss. I've even pulled the magnets off the HDD's before and not had an issue.

That isn't a smart practice. Like I said before, it isn't the sticking of the magnet that corrupts the data , it is the back and forth movement of the magnet across the drive.