Advice needed on hard drive issue

[karmakiller]

Hi guys, would really appreciate any advice you can provide. Here's the situation:

My internal hard drive recently failed and I got it replaced cuz it was still under warranty. Dell gave me 2 weeks to backup/retrieve data from my failed hard drive before they come and collect it. I did some research online and i suspect it's a pcb failure but apparently for my model it needs a BIOS IC swap as well.

While ideally i would like to retrieve my data, it seems to be too much of a hassle. I know Dell collects back the failed parts, repairs them and installs them into other people's computers when their parts fail. I have some personal files in my failed hard drive and I am paranoid about the data ending up in someone else's computer. So here's my question (sorry for the long story):

Anyone has experience with a similar situation before? Is there a way to make the data in the hard drive permanently unreadable/unretrieveable while still preserving the exterior of the hard drive so I can still pass it back to Dell without raising any questions? Or would Dell even care if i passed them back a smashed hard drive? Haha...

Thank you in advance for your time and advice!

 

[jtjt00]

KillDisk is one of the many utility that can wipe out clean.

 

[ykgoh]

Hi guys, would really appreciate any advice you can provide. Here's the situation:

My internal hard drive recently failed and I got it replaced cuz it was still under warranty. Dell gave me 2 weeks to backup/retrieve data from my failed hard drive before they come and collect it. I did some research online and i suspect it's a pcb failure but apparently for my model it needs a BIOS IC swap as well.

While ideally i would like to retrieve my data, it seems to be too much of a hassle. I know Dell collects back the failed parts, repairs them and installs them into other people's computers when their parts fail. I have some personal files in my failed hard drive and I am paranoid about the data ending up in someone else's computer. So here's my question (sorry for the long story):

Anyone has experience with a similar situation before? Is there a way to make the data in the hard drive permanently unreadable/unretrieveable while still preserving the exterior of the hard drive so I can still pass it back to Dell without raising any questions? Or would Dell even care if i passed them back a smashed hard drive? Haha...

Thank you in advance for your time and advice!

Search for degaussing service in Singapore. Not sure about the cost though. They mostly serve businesses and organizations, not consumers.

KillDisk is one of the many utility that can wipe out clean.

His HDD is probably totally dead with a spoilt PCB. BIOS and other software may not even detect it as a connected drive.

 

[MoneyFace =p]

Hi guys, would really appreciate any advice you can provide. Here's the situation:

My internal hard drive recently failed and I got it replaced cuz it was still under warranty. Dell gave me 2 weeks to backup/retrieve data from my failed hard drive before they come and collect it. I did some research online and i suspect it's a pcb failure but apparently for my model it needs a BIOS IC swap as well.

While ideally i would like to retrieve my data, it seems to be too much of a hassle. I know Dell collects back the failed parts, repairs them and installs them into other people's computers when their parts fail. I have some personal files in my failed hard drive and I am paranoid about the data ending up in someone else's computer. So here's my question (sorry for the long story):

Anyone has experience with a similar situation before? Is there a way to make the data in the hard drive permanently unreadable/unretrieveable while still preserving the exterior of the hard drive so I can still pass it back to Dell without raising any questions? Or would Dell even care if i passed them back a smashed hard drive? Haha...

Thank you in advance for your time and advice!

1. Unscrew and open up the HDD metal casing.

2.

until innards become unrecognisable.

3. Replace and screw back the HDD metal casing.

4. Send to Dell.

 

[User-name]

1. Unscrew and open up the HDD metal casing.

2.

until innards become unrecognisable.

3. Replace and screw back the HDD metal casing.

4. Send to Dell.

Nice i like it!

 

[royfrosty]

LOL MoneyFace why you like that?

Anyway TS, use a demagnetizer go thru the HDD. This will cause the data to be screwed up itself. Making it almost impossible to recover it back.

 

[Louisloo]

Search for degaussing service in Singapore. Not sure about the cost though. They mostly serve businesses and organizations, not consumers..

Degaussing will totally kill the drive and render it completely useless. Not sure if it will void the guarantee.

There are methods of scrambling your data without the need to open
your drive. One of them is to delete the firmware modules. But this will need specialised tools to access the firmware area.

There are other low cost methods which will effectively destroy your data without compromising on your drive warranty.

PM me if you need more information.

 

[karmakiller]

Thanks guys for all the good advice!

Degaussing is probably way out of my budget, I'm looking for some low cost methods. I'm thinking Dell won't go out of their way to recover my data, so maybe the objective is just to make it costly enough for them to repair the hard drive such that it just won't make economic sense to them?

I like MoneyFace's suggestion... Haha! But not sure if Dell will come after me cuz it's not very likely for the hard drive platters to spontaneously explode by themselves? Heh..

Any other ideas on how to subtly spoil the hard drive enough so that they won't bother repairing it and just decide to thrash it?

 

[jtjt00]

PC OEM don't bother with recovering customers data, it is none of their business. What Dell likely to do is this, check the condition of the hard disk.
If bad, next step is to check if still under warranty. If yes, will return to OEM. If no, dispose off.

 

[jtdcjtdc]

as mentioned, official service don't bother with customer data. its all viewed as a service ticket, replace or dispose. unless of course you keep blueprint of changi prison in it and intend to break out your brother.