Thread: Wiping out a non-functioning hard drive

I have a hard drive that just went bad, that I believe is still under warranty, but doesn't seem to want to spin up and/or be recognized by the PC anymore. Fortunately, I have the data backed up somewhere else. Now, I'd like to send it in to be replaced, but there is some personal financial stuff on there that I'd rather not have employees of the hard drive company poking around through when they receive the drive.

Does anyone have any good suggestions on how to at least attempt to clear out a drive that doesn't want to be recognized by the PC anymore? I don't want to do anything like open it up as to not void the warranty. Since it's magnetic media, I assume a magnet might do the trick, but the question then would be where do I get one strong enough?

Going forward, I'll just have to be smarter and encrypt the data, to make it harder to mess with. Lesson learned!

Probably just better to smash the drive and get a new one. This is probably the cheapest alternative. If the drive is a couple years old you can probably find one the same size for $50. Even 1 TB drives are under $100
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar® Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA II 7200 RPM 32MB Buffer Hard Drive Bulk at ZipZoomfly

If your data is confidential this is the best bet.

Originally Posted by mike123abc

Probably just better to smash the drive and get a new one. This is probably the cheapest alternative. If the drive is a couple years old you can probably find one the same size for $50. Even 1 TB drives are under $100
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar® Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA II 7200 RPM 32MB Buffer Hard Drive Bulk at ZipZoomfly

If your data is confidential this is the best bet.

Too funny you should mention that western digital drive, as that is the EXACT drive this happened too. It's only about 3 months old. Which is not my usual experience with a WD drive. I'd hate like heck to have to throw away a $100 that I paid for it though.

Find the biggest magnet you can find.

Yes, it IS possible to wipe using a very powerful magnet. I seriously doubt you'll find one sitting around.

Data recovery firms can also very effectively bulk erase any magnetic media. For far more than the drive cost.

To be completely thorough, you can do what the government sometimes does. Open the case. Remove each platter, assuming there's more than one. Use a rotary disc sander to completely remove all magnetic coatings. Smash what remains of the platters. Grind down the chips. Discard- or, if preferred, shred all parts into small pieces first.

Data is valuable. Media isn't. Bye bye $100.

Originally Posted by FunkyBoss

Too funny you should mention that western digital drive, as that is the EXACT drive this happened too. It's only about 3 months old. Which is not my usual experience with a WD drive. I'd hate like heck to have to throw away a $100 that I paid for it though.

Maybe that is why they are on sale for so cheap

Originally Posted by FunkyBoss

...I'd rather not have employees of the hard drive company poking around through when they receive the drive.

I guess it could happen, but I'm pretty sure they'll simply hook it up to some diagnostic equipment, confirm that "yeah, it's broken", and throw it in the trash.

Someone would have to remove the platters and put them in a working "shell" in order to retrieve your data. Why would someone do that, unless the NSA was after you ?

I could see the Chinese doing it. A "recycling" company, probably not hard to quickly insert the platter assembly into a shell, scan for secrets... Labor intensive yes, but what else is the Chinese government got to do with a few million people?

Go to a store that has those pads that disable anti theft tags and swipe it over them a couple of times or better yet find a metal scrap yard that has one of those magnetic cranes. That would do the trick.