I have a new HDD arriving Monday under warranty and must give the old
corrupt drive to the courier in exchange.
The old drive does fire up into windows after about 6 hours and it is
possible to access some of my business data, letters, invoices, banking etc.
What do they do with these drives and can I assume the data to be safe in
their hands.
At times, when trying to access files, it tells me the C drive is not
formatted and would I like to format it. Though I have refrained from doing
anything to date I just might give it a try as Monday gets closer. Or will
it just not do it.
> I have a new HDD arriving Monday under warranty and must give the old
> corrupt drive to the courier in exchange.
>
> The old drive does fire up into windows after about 6 hours and it is
> possible to access some of my business data, letters, invoices, banking etc.
>
> What do they do with these drives and can I assume the data to be safe in
> their hands.
>
> At times, when trying to access files, it tells me the C drive is not
> formatted and would I like to format it. Though I have refrained from doing
> anything to date I just might give it a try as Monday gets closer. Or will
> it just not do it.
>
> dj
>
>
Why don't you call the business to which the hard drive is being
returned what is its policy on privacy? Dell, IIRC, does have a
policy on privacy. There may be a link to it in its webpages or
via a search.
"tpow" <wd40@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:75KdnUnX6M2osB3VnZ2dnUVZ8vGdnZ2d@bt.com...
>I have a new HDD arriving Monday under warranty and must give the old
>corrupt drive to the courier in exchange.
>
> The old drive does fire up into windows after about 6 hours and it is
> possible to access some of my business data, letters, invoices,
> banking etc.
>
> What do they do with these drives and can I assume the data to be safe
> in their hands.
>
> At times, when trying to access files, it tells me the C drive is not
> formatted and would I like to format it. Though I have refrained from
> doing anything to date I just might give it a try as Monday gets
> closer. Or will it just not do it.
>
> dj
>
I use DBAN.
I just feel I can't trust anyone else with my data or my clients.
"Eric Parker" <newsnet@thedrossericparker.plus.com> wrote in message
news:YNmdnYL-z93Y5R3VnZ2dnUVZ8hednZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>
> "tpow" <wd40@btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:75KdnUnX6M2osB3VnZ2dnUVZ8vGdnZ2d@bt.com...
>>I have a new HDD arriving Monday under warranty and must give the old
>>corrupt drive to the courier in exchange.
>>
>> The old drive does fire up into windows after about 6 hours and it is
>> possible to access some of my business data, letters, invoices, banking
>> etc.
>>
>> What do they do with these drives and can I assume the data to be safe in
>> their hands.
>>
>> At times, when trying to access files, it tells me the C drive is not
>> formatted and would I like to format it. Though I have refrained from
>> doing anything to date I just might give it a try as Monday gets closer.
>> Or will it just not do it.
>>
>> dj
>>
>
> I use DBAN.
>
> I just feel I can't trust anyone else with my data or my clients.
>
> Eric
>
> --
> Remove the dross to contact me directly
>
>
thanks I gave it a try but DBAN does not work with bad sectors........which
is what I have.
Try HDAT2. It also has the capability of overwriting a drive, although not as
thoroughly as DBAN.
Or try the manufacturer's drive diagnostics, most of which have an option to
zero out the drive. It won't be perfect, but a drive zeroed out is less
susceptible to prying eyes... Ben Myers
On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:51:40 +0100, "tpow" <wd40@btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>"Eric Parker" <newsnet@thedrossericparker.plus.com> wrote in message
>news:YNmdnYL-z93Y5R3VnZ2dnUVZ8hednZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>>
>> "tpow" <wd40@btinternet.com> wrote in message
>> news:75KdnUnX6M2osB3VnZ2dnUVZ8vGdnZ2d@bt.com...
>>>I have a new HDD arriving Monday under warranty and must give the old
>>>corrupt drive to the courier in exchange.
>>>
>>> The old drive does fire up into windows after about 6 hours and it is
>>> possible to access some of my business data, letters, invoices, banking
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> What do they do with these drives and can I assume the data to be safe in
>>> their hands.
>>>
>>> At times, when trying to access files, it tells me the C drive is not
>>> formatted and would I like to format it. Though I have refrained from
>>> doing anything to date I just might give it a try as Monday gets closer.
>>> Or will it just not do it.
>>>
>>> dj
>>>
>>
>> I use DBAN.
>>
>> I just feel I can't trust anyone else with my data or my clients.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>> --
>> Remove the dross to contact me directly
>>
>>
>
>thanks I gave it a try but DBAN does not work with bad sectors........which
>is what I have.
>
>dj
>
> What do they do with these drives and can I assume the data to
> be safe in their hands.
It used to be that these drives were returned to the manufacturer for
failure analysis. I wouldn't be surprised if that still happened if/
when a computer maker were to see a lot of a particular drive model
come back, but I'll bet most of them today simply get thrown out.
You can't assume that the data will be safe in their hands because a
lot can happen as the drive winds it way back to the manufacturer. The
return shipment could be lost or stolen, the drives could be thrown
away intact when they reach the manufacturer...the list of
possibilities is quite long.
I do not return defective hard drives under warranty. Knowing where
the dead drive is and what happened to it is worth the purchase price
of a replacement.
Get a copy of DBAN and run it on the drive. Note that if you do, I
strongly suggest you disconnect all other hard drives in the system
from both power and data connections to avoid a disaster.
If you can't do that, talk to Dell and see what they might do. I'm
sure they have plenty of clients who want replacement disks when one
fails but don't feel they can return the bad one.
New HHD 
Linear Mode
