make sure my defective HD is clean before i send it to IBM?

[msafi]

my old hard-drive snapped, and ibm sent me another one. they requested my old HD back. but...

how do i make sure the information in it is absolutely irretrievable?

thanks,

[Aroc]

If the drive can be partially accessed, you could try zeroing out the drive with a DOS utility that writes zeros to the drive. Some of these programs with have a /DOD switch that will perform 7 passes. The data will pretty much be unretrievable then.

If the drive can't be accessed at all, one of your only recourses to make sure data is unretrievable is to take a ball pein hammer to the drive. I suggest hitting the spindle and armature areas of the drive a few times. You should hear a bunch of broken stuff rattling inside.

But really the drive manufacturers will make sure the data is unreadable prior to refurbrishing your drive for resale. So you don't have anything to worry about until you are worried IBM or hitachi will snoop your drive prior to reconditioning it. Which they won't do, if I understand their privacy policies correctly.

Normally we just zero out our drives or gently wack them with a hammer prior to returning them to either the manufacturer via RMA or even just tossing them in the trash. No problems with the RMA process thus far.

We do a have a couple sensitive systems, though. for drive failures on drives hosting our ERP/MRP or CRM or HR databases, we just eat the costs if the drive fails. Then we wack it with hammers and keep them on the shelf until the system is retired. Once we retire the box we have facilities drill out the platters twice (not sure what type of bt they use, if that is your question, then run them through a small trash compactor. Not sure if that is Sarb-Ox compliant, but the guys finance seem to have no problems with it.

[christopher_wolf]

You could also just use ThinkVantage>Secure Disposal on either DOD/DOE Level or a really high Custom setup; it is what I have always seen labs around here use for drive zeroing; or just have some fun with a ball pein hammer as stated.

[msafi]

i don't know if my HD is accessible or not. how do i make sure?

but i was told that it's inaccessible because it crashed. i was using the laptop and all of the sudden i hear something snaps inside, and it stops reading completely. is this what's called HD failure? and does it mean it's inaccessible?

thanks,

[Kenn]

If you're sending it back because you claim there was a hardware error, I would caution against making it obvious that there is any kind of abuse or intentional damage on the drive before sending it back

[msafi]

sure kenn, that's sensible. that's why i was cautious not to go with the hammer method, and that's why i need to know whether my device is accessible or not.

[christopher_wolf]

If it is physically damaged, that helps; rattles around alot, etc. You could also try a few powerful magnets.

Theoretically, just because it crashed, doesn't mean it can't be read by some type of machine. With enough work, one could extract some information from the platters as long as at least a few are intact and the damage isn't too bad; yet I suspect that they won't go to such great lengths.

[BillMorrow]

as most here know, or should know, i sell (or used to) HDD's..

sold one to a fellow who did some super secret government work..

he had one he said failed and sent it back to me..

well, to make the story short, i guess he wanted to be sure that no one could read the drive.. ever..

when i got it back it rattled like there were many small bits lose inside..
i opened the drive and found the platters had been broken into about a dozen shards..

i called him and asked what he had done..!

he said he puts drives that have to go back for warranty repair into a microwave and destroys them in that way..

SO, if you have super secret info on the hard drive a stay in a microwave oven will take care of any reconstruction and recovery..

that said, unless you have some such data, i think no one is likely to be interested enough to recover your data just to run through it and learn your bank account number..

[christopher_wolf]

Amazing....

Somebody ran a HDD through a Microwave, just for that...Wow; now that is something I wouldn't have thought up of quickly.

[Aroc]

Neat tip about the microwave oven. I'll have to remember that!

[msafi]

will ibm get [censored] if i microwave their HD?

[scrible88]

will ibm get [censored] if i microwave their HD?

[christopher_wolf]

ROFLCOPTER!

http://ballen.res.utk.edu/lollerskates.gif

^ LOLLERSKATES

[scrible88]

STEAMLOLLER

[Domain]

Man, all these ROFLs are a royal pain in the ASCII.

[DIGITALgimpus]

if you really have such sensitive data, you can likely justify buying the drive, and not dealing with the warranty.

I've heard the microwave trick too. That can't be good for the microwave with all the metal. I personally wouldn't do it.

[xaverin]

I'd agree not trying the Microwave method.
Besides, there is afaik no water in a Harddrive and a Microwave just activates the Water Dipole to turn around.
The Electromagnet should work, if he is powerful enoug to get through the shielding an magnetize the Surface of the Platters inside the Disk.
But I also dont know if there are some factory datas about the disk itself are stored somewhere else - because they would also be erased.

[smstewart_9554]

well, as i understand it, microwaves break hydrogen bonds. It's just that water forms many hydrogen bonds, but other things also form hydrogen bonds.

Also I once put a cd in the microwave for a few seconds and it certainly destroyed the cd even though it didn't shatter it. And afaik, cd's don't contain water either.

[christopher_wolf]

Well, Metals don't do well in the Microwave...Period.

According to the "Sea of Electrons" Materials Model of a Metal, there are always random charge densities and buildups of electronic charges. So if it was powerful enough, you could cause a crack and possibly shatter the Metal Object. It would have to be powerful and you would have to have a really good magnetron in the Microwave to do it.

[GomJabbar]

Just drop it in a bucket of Aqua Regia and be done with it

[christopher_wolf]

^ Even better

As a starting point, try one part of Nitric Acid to Three Parts Hydrochloric Acid. Though I don't think that is covered by the Warranty.

[Ground Loop]

Consider a bulk tape eraser -- just a strong AC magnetic field.
If you hold this against the drive for a short while, it should render your data inaccessible to all but the most-determined sleuths.

It also has no visible impact on the hardware, unlike microwaving or smashing.

[o1001010]

let me ask you guys something, if you use ibm's bios and put a password on the hard drive, and let's say that you take the hard drive out and put it into an enclosure, will the password still be there? or the hard drive password stays on the system and applies to hard drives that are plugged into your system?

on other words, are the hard drive that tp uses FDE drives (full disk encrypton, see seagate FDE) or not?


and since we are on topic isn't the security chip will deny access if the hard drive is removes from parent? ie won't work if you put it into a enclsure? (subbed security 2.0)