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Wiping Data on Dead HD
Misanthropic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have a dead hard drive (doesn't mount, just makes a loud whine, dead as a door nail). I'm RMAing it but I have some information on there I would like to obfuscate before sending it out (client stuff mostly).
Not that I think the info will get out - but still, it can't hurt.
So how can I wipe the data without a) anything software based b) doesn't mess up the RMA (damage the hardware)? Magnet all around the outside?
Not that I think the info will get out - but still, it can't hurt.
So how can I wipe the data without a) anything software based b) doesn't mess up the RMA (damage the hardware)? Magnet all around the outside?
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Short of destroying the platters, don't think you can stop the determined ones.
You can't change the data on the platters using the usual methods if the drive is dead. The magnets usually used for these sorts of jobs are electromagnets, about the size of a brick, and they're really only effective when you remove the platters entirely and go over them (much like you iron a shirt). Magnetic forces are really[\i] short-range, and even with a beefy degaussing electromagnet the metal case of the drive could distort the magnetic flux enough that you're really not getting any field strength onto all the parts of the platter.
It's true you really have to be exceptionally throrough or forensic methods can be used to read the platters, even through rewrites and degaussing (the usual numbers people toss around is that you can basically distingish between the last 7 or so rewrites). That analysis is, however, difficult and expensive lab work that can't be done just anywhere. No one's going to even attempt it unless they're working for a large government agency and they're already sure that particular drive has something they just must have. No one's going to do it on the off-chance they can pull off your client's customer database.
The best (and lowest liability) course of action is, if you do not trust the vendor to handle your client's data with care (and most manufacturers will specifically tell you that will not), then the best course of action is to physically destroy the drive or give it to your data-destruction vendor (there's a lot of places that outsource shredding and such, if your office does too, the vendor might also offer desruction of other media as a service also) and just get a replacement drive.
I suppose it coudln't hurt to contact the vendor with your concerns and see if they can present any alternatives, but I kind of expect they'll expect the drive back as-is. I've seen some arrangements where the device in question was destroyed by the customer (by previous arrangement with the vendor) before being sent in for credit/replacement, but it's not a usual circumstance.
I was thinking - would a few seconds in a microwave I don't care about do anything to the data and not much noticible to the drive physically?
Is rubbing a magnet on the outside even viable? Would it do anything?
Drives are super cheap anyway, so just destroy it and get IT to give you a new one.
stick the drive into a USB encolsure and see if your machine will recognize it and you can access the data. If you can, you have two options:
1. Download and install HDDGuru. Use it to reinitialize the drive (incorrectly known as a "low level format"). HDDGuru doesn't take that long to write zeros to an entire drive, but it only does one pass. That SHOULD be good enough to RMA the drive.
2. If you're REALLY paranoid about the data (i.e. you leeched a few gigs of pics from 4chan...), use the Windows Cipher command to do a three pass wipe. Open a command prompt and type in "cipher /W:<drive letter>:" . Don't forget the colon on the end after the drive letter. This will take a lot longer to complete as it writes zeroes in one pass, one's in the second pass, and random numbers in the final pass.
Nope.
Daniel Rutter (of Dan's Data) wrote about this topic at least once.
Someone else did an (rather unscientific but visually interesting) experiment. The drive emerged entirely unscathed.
Now, that being said, taking the drive down to a car junkyard and letting the giant crane electromagnet have at it will probably render the drive entirely unrecoverable (save for heroic measures of the forementioned analysis by scanning transmission electron microscopy). However, if you did that, it would cause physical damage to the drive that would be obvious as soon as the manufacturer did any basic failure analysis on the drive. Barring any obvious external damage done my a magnet intended to lift cars, the critical servo tracks on the platters would be erased. Also, there's a good chance that the armatures inside the drive would be permanently bent or destroyed, which would be painfully obvious when the drive's opened. Either case would be a pretty justifiable reason for the manufacturer to refuse warranty service.
If the drive's not operational, there's no way to delete the data without either returning the drive to operable condition first, or performing some sort of physical destruction of the drive. In the former case, such repair is usually beyond the capability of the consumer, and in the latter, you're voiding your warranty which obviates the need to return the drive back to the manufacturer at all. There's no middle ground.
Turns out similiar problems exist in other industries as well. It's easy to return a working box clean. It's easy to return a box that's completely crispy. It's very hard to return a box that has a component failure that has memory elements (hard drive or flash memory) that are still in working order. You can't futz with the insides without voiding the widget's warranty, and you can't power up the box to command it to erase. What to do? (Turns out you etiher destory the device and write it off as a loss, you escort the vendor to repair it, and then you erase it and send it back, or you have them send you a letter that authorizes you to do some sort of interim repair or remediation before sending it back for warranty work.)
then try putting the drive in a ziplock bag, force the air out before closing, stick it in the freezer overnight, get the machine ready for it, and as soon as you take it out of the freezer rush it to your PC and connect it via SATA/IDE or USB. That may buy you enough time to do a clean wipe with one of the aforementioned tools. In all honesty, if it took freezing to get it to work, use HDDGuru and send it in.
Hrr. I'm not sure I would recommend this, for the same reasons I mention in the other hard drive thread. In this case, I'll concede it's not entirely the wrong circumstances, although the OP doesn't really provide enough info to determine if it's a sticky drive spindle, or it's some other controller or mechanical problem. And, to be fair, it's pretty hard to distingiush between them from the outside.
I'd tend to still recommend and caution against using this method even in this circumstance, as it is a one-shot solution (you really can only expect to do this trick once, and shouldn't expect to have the drive spin up again should it be powered off). It would also be likely to leave signs on the drive (damage from condensation caused by exceeding the specs on non-operational storage temps and humidity) that may cause the manufacturer to refuse warranty service.
However, since retaining or recovering the data isn't on the table, and if the OP resigns himself to not returning the drive for warranty, there wouldn't be any harm in using this method to attempt a conventional approach to data deletion before proceeding to physical destruction.
I don't really think most manufacturers go through the trouble of doing a thorough inspection to find signs of out-of-spec operation. I had a 160GB IDE drive die on me where I was barely able to recover the data, and ended up having to freeze it in order to wipe it before sending it back to Seagate. I kept the drive in my upright freezer for about 12 hours before wiping it. Sent it in and got my new drive without a hassle.
Will that always be the case? Probably not. Maybe they did an inspection and found nothing out of the ordinary. I'm just offering this as a possible solution in the event the OP has genuine concerns about any data left on the drive and wants to wipe the data before sending it back, which it appears he wants to do.
No, that's cool - and I think we agree on the pros and cons.
Karma being what it is, the one time you expect it to go like the other 1,000 times, it don't. It could prevent him for getting a replacement in that case, and since that was one of his goals too, I wanted to point out that risk, however marginal. Even though in the OP's case it really can't make things worse in most senses, I'd hate for him to try it and then get denied warranty on a technicality he wasn't expecting.
Pretty much this.
Magnets work great. An acetylene torch over the platters works as well.
The first thing I tried was the freezer trick, which did not work.
The drive itself makes a loud whine when plugged in by SATA or by an external enclosure. It isn't seen at all in Mac OS X 10.6 - I suppose I could try Windows 7 when I get home.
I've had a big magnet happily sitting on it for a few days - figured it can't hurt, even though it does nothing.
As far as for the security of the data - I'm just a freelance graphic designer and video editor. Some of it is confidential but I don't think anyone would care if they found it. I'd hope.
I may just destroy it but it sucks destroying a $70 drive that would otherwise be replaced.
Either way, you're not getting a warranty replacement and a secure wipe; you're going to need to pick one or the other.