Wiping HDD securely before RMA

OverDrive · 2 Apr 2018 at 18:56

Hi guys,

One of the WD Reds in my Syno NAS has developed a bad sector - still under warranty so will RMA.

I was planning on removing it from my NAS and hooking it up to my PC and formatting it - what's the best way to do it securely these days? Windows Disk Management console, DiskPart etc?

I believe the drive is in the ext4 file system, so guessing I can just delete the volume and then format from there, the key thing here is the formatting securely element.

Many thanks.

OverDrive · 2 Apr 2018 at 20:24

Thanks for the replies.

It depends what you mean by secure erase. A full format should write to every sector destroying the data, but there are also tools to write several patterns over the disk to make sure no one with special recovery hardware can recover your data.

Not too worried about writing several patterns, just a regular but reasonably safe erase. So, would a regular full (rather than quick) format be sufficient?

OverDrive · 2 Apr 2018 at 20:57

Thanks guys!

Was the disk part of a raid set?

Yes, the disk is part of a RAID 1 set.

So at a minimum, full format - but ideally using a secure erase tool?

How about cipher.exe in Windows?

OverDrive · 2 Apr 2018 at 21:16

As said above DBAN looks good.

I guess I better disconnect the two SSDs in my rig before I use it.. just in case I accidently wipe one of them!

OverDrive · 25 Apr 2018 at 11:51

Thanks for the helpful replies. I actually formatted the HDD using the WD utility in the end as I had it installed for running a SMART test before the RMA. It has a quick and full wipe option, so I did the full which I assume like the full format in Windows fills the drive with zeros, it took around 4-5hrs to format a 3TB WD Red.

As said above, a normal full format is no doubt sufficient.