Odd Hard Drive Request

[Falcon2004]

Hi

A Hard Drive Recently died on me and I need to RMA it, the BIOS doesnt detect it and it makes a clicking noise, ive done all the usual things (diff connectors etc) and its deffinatly dead. however, i have a certain amount of senstive data on it (credit card details in bills etc) and i want to know if there is any way i can erase the drive before sending it back in case access to this data is obrtained. if not, how likly are Aria (the company i purchased the drive from) likly to look at my data?

Thanks
Falcon

[tiggerai]

Well they could get done if they do anything with it under the Data Protection act.

What is the Manufacturer of the drive?? I'd go straight to the Manufacturer for an RMA.

[daniel_owen_uk]

Write on it "private and confidential information please destroy data", they aren't allowed to look at it anyway under the DPA like tiggerai says.

[killgORE]

or take an electro magnet to it !

[edit]

also the DPA, and if the hard drive is b0ned. In my experience they will NOT try to fix it. Its cheaper to just replace it.

[Falcon2004]

Ok guys thanks for the info, I did think about the DPA but wasn't sure how well I was covered. I took daniel_owen_uk's advice and wrote "private and confidential information please destroy data" on an attached letter.

I did consider puting a magnet on it but I wasn't sure how well it would work...

And now comes the hardest question to answer...It was an...an...IBM Deskstar *hangs head in shame*

Falcon

[Butuz]

Aah the "Deathstar" - such a powerful weapon in the battle between losing data and keeping data

The weapon of the enemy, and no mistake!

Butuz

[tiggerai]

IBM are quite good with RMA's

I had 2 of those go in a week... And replaced in 10 days... Check out the IBM website for RMA details etc...

[Falcon2004]

Aah the "Deathstar" - such a powerful weapon in the battle between losing data and keeping data

The weapon of the enemy, and no mistake!

Butuz

Unfortunatly I only found out that they were nicknamed deathstars about a month after i had bought it =(

[Rave]

Mine's still clinging on for dear life, but it only works if it's on its side now- it went like that about a month out of warranty in fact.

Anyway, given that HDs are pretty cheap now, I very much doubt they'll bother to try fixing the drive, an hour of a trained technician's time would cost them more than a new drive.

Rich :¬)

[petrefax]

Write on it "private and confidential information please destroy data".

...thus guaranteeing that the work experience boy will try to recover stuff off it when nobodys looking,!!

[mr_anderson187]

bum i just bought an ide ibm deskstar hd, of ebay, is it lilekly this will go belly up any time soon, or is only with the bigger ones?

[myth]

If "I" were to recive a drive with "private and confidential information please destroy data" writen on it I'd be shure to see was on it! Simply because its unusual! Now they may think you have terrorist attack plans on it!

[Flash]

drop it down the stairs that should sort it out

[mr_anderson187]

nooo, stop heling him, help me, is my drive doomed???

[GAteKeeper]

I have an old 46Gb 75GXP (the orginal Deathstar) and its still going strong - has been on 24/7 for over 3 years now

GAteKeeper

[bmh.01]

Still got 2 40GB 60GXPs still running against the odds after 3 years, also got a 14GXP from about 7 years ago that still works, its noisy and slow but it still works.
Think they've managed to iron out most of the problems now anyway.