How can I wipe a broken hard disk drive before sending it back to the manufacturer for maintenance?
This is a brilliant question!
The simple answer is YOU CAN’T
If the Manufacturer will not send you a new drive until they get the old one back, you will in effect be sending them a drive potentially full of confidential data.
Just tell them that you don’t want to return the drive because of sensitive data, and you prefer to physically destroy it.
The probable reason they want the dead drive is to make sure it really is dead and you aren’t just trying to blag a free one.
If they insist, and if your data is important and/or legally protected (most business data is), just take the hit on the cost of the drive.
You could also contact Secure Data Recycling and see if we cannot offer some sort of exchange solution, giving you the knowledge that the data has been deleted in a secure fashion and you receive a replacement drive, sure it will cost but it may take some of the pain away!
