How do I wipe a dead hard drive?

L

luminal

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Joined
Oct 13, 2004
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So, before anyone says it, I've learned my lesson about backing up my data. Too bad I learned the lesson after my laptop hard drive puked.

I have to send the "dead" hard drive back to Dell as part of my warranty, and before I do that, I want to make sure that my hard drive is wiped clean. I've tried connecting it to my PC, in order to get the data off and format it, but I get a Secondary Master Failure error in the BIOS.

Is there any way that I can wipe the drive without physically destroying it?
 
big magnets.. taht should scramble anything left on it.. just get the biggest magnet you can and put that HD on it near it, whatever...
 
scottatwittenberg said:
big magnets.. taht should scramble anything left on it.. just get the biggest magnet you can and put that HD on it near it, whatever...
Click to expand...
Um, no there's already big magnets inside the HD, but they do nothing to the data.

If the drive is dead, the drive is dead no need to worry about your data being stolen.
 
It's usually the policy of businesses doing replacements of memory devices to destroy the platter or flash mem. In my case, when my 256 meg SanDisk usb drive went bad, i was told that the chip containing my 'confidential' data would be immediately disassembled and smashed upon verification that it had been returned for replacement.
 
If you have any explosives of anysort those are fun too just make sure to get it on video or takes pics
 
OCgamer666 said:
might i suggest a large blunt object or a firearm of some sort
Click to expand...

was going to suggest the firearm, but then realized the odds of tearing the little warranty sticker might be too high ;)
 
good point i forgot to ask if it was still under warranty because if it is then RMA it get a new one if it isnt "Destruction and Mayhem is fun"
 
Yeah, it's still under warranty. I've already received the replacement and now I have to send back the dead one.

If I had the option, I've got a sledgehammer in the garage that would definitely do the job, but I don't think Dell would appreciate receiving a flattened hard drive. ;)
 
They're not going to get your data off of the drive, just send it back as-is. About all companies have strict policies against recovering any data off of dead storage devices. Theres nothing you can do anyway except physically destroying the platters, but then Dell will send you a bill for that replacement hard drive :)
 
Unless the actual platters inside are destroyed, any hard disk can have its data recovered by data recovery specialists. It costs a crap-load of money and is usually reserved for governments and large corporations so I doubt anyone is going to just randomly read your data.
 
No, no, no....... You are all wrong. Submerge the hard drive into water and let it sit for about a half hour.
 
definetly just use a magnet. the above post about magnets not doing anything is total bull shit.

Hard drives are Magnetic storage devices. no big news there, Hard drives have Strong little magnets inside. These magnets are placed to create a magnetic field in a specific direction (either clock wise or counter clockwise) to store a binary data object, a 0 or 1. (may be some news to some n00bz)


anyways, running a magnet over the top of a disk fucks with the magnetic field which will cause most if not all of the data to become at least corrupted.

A better option than a magnet is one of those degausing colils. they are much stronger and will definetly render the hard drive and the data unuseable
 
Yeah...run some magnets over it...the shake it vigorously up and down and from side to side...get those read/write heads scraping around in there, maybe even drop it a few times :)
 
or you could use a degaussing coil. these are used in tv's and monitors to knock electrons off the side so that dan rather doesn't look so much like e.t.

you can get one here.

those will fry just about anything magnetic that's near 'em, hehehe.

i might have to use one myself on the old toshiba i got whose drive took a crap.
 
since you dont have access to the drive, there isnt really any good way to securely delete the information short of destroying the drive

but then its not all that likely the techs at Dell would have the time to attempt recovery either
they will likely scrap it

even using a honking big electro magnet wouldnt securely wipe the drive
though it might put it into the forensic recovery category

forensic recovery examines not only the current magentic polarization of the bits but also the stength as well, so its able to read the previous state of the bit (or several previous states of a bit)
and then recompile them, that of course takes alot of money and time

even a program like autoclave or DBAN which can write multiple patterns of data
can given unlimited resources and time be recovered, but barring the NSA being convinced your HDD holds the secret location of Osma bin Laudin....
 
:D rotflomao

actually, that takes care of data pretty bad... but it also will result in him having to pay for the new drive.

i still say the degaussing coil for about an hour will pretty much fry everything like bacon. even the NSA isn't gonna bother with the thing, it'd be messed up so bad.
 
i have a dead monitor at home.. do you think i can take it apart and get the degaussing coil from it? maybe i could mod one onto a tv for fun...

also, couldn't you get a hard drive close enough to the back of a monitor that a degaussing coil could fuck up a hard drive's data?
 
(1) if it has a button that looks like a magnet with a slash through it, that monitor would have it.
(2) not and still have the monitor useful. the degaussing coil is in the front or middle of the monitor (wrapped around the crt) and you'd basically have to have the hard drive about maybe a few millimeters, or wrap the drive in the coil for anything to happen.

another way to fry your drive would be to open it, carefully (so nobody notices that it has been) and put a ton of fingerprints all over the platters. the read/write heads are something like 1/100 the height of the fingerprint left, so the first time they fire it up to test it, it'll screw up inside major big time.
 
let it soak in a bucket full of tuna fish and vinegar and mayo in the sun for a few days, they wont want to know whats on it when they get it :p ..... creep
 
update:

two days after i received the replacement drive from dell, i also receive an invoice for the replacement drive with the terms NET 10 or Return Equip.

i read the invoice carefully and realized i didn't have to pay anything up front, however, that was after my wife opened the invoice and called me to bitch because dell was going to charge me to replace the pos that was supposed to be under warranty. took a few minutes to calm her down from her hysterics.

long and short, dell was going to charge me $220 for a 60GB 4200RPM Refurbished Hitachi laptop hard drive, when i could spend $115/plus shipping to get a New 60GB 5400RPM Hitachi drive on newegg. talk about a rip-off. :mad:

safe to say, i said goodbye to all of my data and returned the drive to dell.
 
now to say to the rest of that dell computer...

seriously though, that's sad to hear... what are dell's reasons for not covering your warrantied drive? ask for the dead drive back since it is yours... then you can use all of the other people's suggestions on it..
 
nice idea, mister goldeneye, but no.

while in principal, the concept would work, you have to think about the side effects.
yes, the drive would be vaporized... or at a range of up to about 30km, the emp would wipe it clean.

but the blast radius of even a small uncontrolled fission or fusion reaction (what you are talking about) would consume approximately 3/4 mi. remember what happened to hiroshima and nagasaki? and on top of everything else, you'd need a "waldo chamber" because you'll have radiation sickness after just 1/2 hour around either uranium or plutonium, and that will slowly kill you rather painfully and with excruciating slowness.

besides, i don't think ebay sells weapons-grade uranium 235, which is what you'd want for the easiest of these things. plutonium devices are a little tricky... you need a gazillion itty bitty wedges, and they all have to slide together at exactly the right time, or it's a dud. a genuine thermonuclear device would be a fusion bomb, and you don't even want to go there.

keep in mind that this is all against the law to begin with... and i don't want anyone to deal with one of those blasted things. if ever a weapon came straight from #@!!, nuclear bombs were it. hey, i got all my knowledge on them from an encyclopedia.
 
The deguasing coil in a monitor is located around the front of the CRT inside the front bezel of your monitor. Set the drive on top of the bezel and degause it a few times. Switch the HDDs orientation each time you do it. (IE, upside down, turn it 90*, etc)
 
dell recievs the drive into a giant warehouse
the drive is pluged into a ide tester
if the drive passes a smart test its put in a pile to be repackaged and sent back out to a different consumer
if the drive fails a smart test it is loaded into 10pack boxes to be shipped back to maxtor/WD/segate etc....
when maxtor/WD/segate etc.... recieve the drive
they do the same thing
then with the drives that failed they pull the circuit board off and replace it with a testing one, they run a low level format and run a data test
and on and on

but basicly
at no point in the process is anyone going to try to even recover your data

the exception being, if when the drive gets back to dell it sudenly passes a smart test its going to be sent right back out with your data still on it
 
The only real, "certified" solution for erasing dead hard drives is to use a (gasp!) hard-drive degausser. For drives that still more or less work, writing zeros to the whole drive is sufficient.

Just look up "hard drive degausser" on Google. But I don't expect you'll want to buy one - they're in the $1500 and up range.

These things are really powerful giant electromagnets. We're talking over 1000 watts, focused into a 4000+ gauss field in what feels like 6" square. The relatively cheap ones ($2000) are just boxes with a flat bed on top, on which you rotate the drive while the degausser is on (for the one I've used, you did one full rotation on one side, then flipped it and did it agagin - 10 seconds each side). This is easier said than done, considering the drive practically glues itself to the machine.

I've degaussed over 500 hard drives, and I can tell you it's not very fun.
 
simpler solution
place HD into lunch bag
take to airport
leave in lobby
call in suspicios package to 911
eat popcorn as bomb squad blows it apart for you
 
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