Need to return a hard drive....help to erase!

Biz.Kid09 · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:03

Hi guys,
I bought a Hitachi XL 2tb today from ***** and i have got it home, backed up my stuff via Acronis and now i have just restarted my PC (Thanks Windows update) and now the drive is clicking and is unrecognisable in Windows.

How can i fully erase it so i can take it back, i dont trust the supermarket to send back to Hitachi and rather just put on shelf again.

Is there anyway i can do this? use a magnet or something?

Thanks guys.

Please no "kill with fire" etc as i dont think the supermarket will take back an empty box

panyan · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:04

kill disk is what i used, the free version is very effective

chigley · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:08

Does it show up in the BIOS so you could use DBAN, or is completely screwed?

Biz.Kid09 · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:11

I will try that Panyan.

Chigley- It does and it shows up in My Computer but just as "Local Disk" and if i try and right click format or use disk management it just crashes and i have to restart .explorer.

chigley · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:12

Biz.Kid09 said:
I will try that Panyan.

Chigley- It does and it shows up in My Computer but just as "Local Disk" and if i try and right click format or use disk management it just crashes and i have to restart .explorer.

Try DBAN then, it's never failed me before!

Biz.Kid09 · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:13

Ok thanks mate.

I am going to bed now because i start college tomorrow but will try it when i get home.

If that doesnt work. What "physical" options do i have?
I have read about magnets etc?

I thought 2tb for £49 was too good to be true.

chigley · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:15

Biz.Kid09 said:
Ok thanks mate.

I am going to bed now because i start college tomorrow but will try it when i get home.

If that doesnt work. What "physical" options do i have?
I have read about magnets etc?

I thought 2tb for £49 was too good to be true.

You might want to leave it running overnight if it's a 2TB HDD, I'd imagine that'd take more than a few hours to do a decent 3 pass erase.

Can't think of any physical options that don't leave the drive un-returnable sorry!

Biz.Kid09 · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:17

Ok,
I have 28 days dont i? so i can leave it as long as it needs.

Buchanan0204 · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:28

Is there anything on the drive of particular importance that could be catastrophic in the hands of someone else?

If not.... just leave it alone and send it back.

P.S. I'm sick of telling people to never buy Hitachi!!!

Biz.Kid09 · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:47

Buchanan0204 said:
Is there anything on the drive of particular importance that could be catastrophic in the hands of someone else?

If not.... just leave it alone and send it back.

P.S. I'm sick of telling people to never buy Hitachi!!!

Not necessarily but i would very much prefer it if was wiped as there is a lot of photos on there and things.

Well it was cheap!

Buchanan0204 · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:58

Biz.Kid09 said:
Not necessarily but i would very much prefer it if was wiped as there is a lot of photos on there and things.

Well it was cheap!

No one is going to bother recovering data from a broken drive just to see a few photos of some random guy and his family/days out.

So many people are paranoid about their data. Unless you have things on it you shouldn't. Who cares who sees it... what can they even do with it? Post a picture of you on Facebook claiming it's them??

Save yourself the hassle of trying to secure erase a duff drive and just send it back. Hitachi get millions RMA drives a week. I doubt they have time to recover photos from them all.

TNGL · 8 Sep 2011 at 00:00

DBAN should do it, but will probably take a long time.

Tribune · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:30

Kill it with porn...oh, you already did.

MAXIBOY · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:43

Biz.Kid09 said:
Well it was cheap!

depends get a samsung eco F4 for £56.00 or seen my favourite seagate green for the same money..

spleenharvester · 8 Sep 2011 at 02:04

Tribune said:
Kill it with porn...oh, you already did.

I'm sigging that

docsonic · 8 Sep 2011 at 08:38

DBAN will do the job, or you can use Wipedrive 6 but you'll have to pay for that. Wipedrive will also overwrite the Host Protected Area of the hard drive unlike DBAN.

http://www.dban.org/node/35

Will take a few hours but if it's your peace of mind that's a small price.

Biz.Kid09 · 8 Sep 2011 at 11:52

I know i am being paranoid but i have time to kill.

So i have just booted into DBAN.

What method do i go for? not worried about time as long as its not over say 5hrs? (When i finish work)

Thanks MAXIBOY for the suggestion but i dont really need one and i just bought it for the sake of it tbh.

chigley · 8 Sep 2011 at 11:58

Biz.Kid09 said:
I know i am being paranoid but i have time to kill.

So i have just booted into DBAN.

What method do i go for? not worried about time as long as its not over say 5hrs? (When i finish work)

Thanks MAXIBOY for the suggestion but i dont really need one and i just bought it for the sake of it tbh.

I tend to go for DoD Short, which does 3 passes.
Make sure you select the right HDD!

panyan · 8 Sep 2011 at 11:58

Biz.Kid09 said:
I know i am being paranoid but i have time to kill.

So i have just booted into DBAN.

What method do i go for? not worried about time as long as its not over say 5hrs? (When i finish work)

Thanks MAXIBOY for the suggestion but i dont really need one and i just bought it for the sake of it tbh.

when my 2tb WD Green died on me, i used the 1 pass fast wipe with kill disk and it estimated 34 hours

Biz.Kid09 · 8 Sep 2011 at 12:06

Did it take that long?

I have selected the drive i want to do in DBAN and hit f10 to start but its not doing anything?