How to kill a hard drive

Minglewood

Commendable
Apr 13, 2016
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0
1,520
I bought three 4TB Seagate internal HDD's 2 years ago. One failed a couple months ago and I returned it for credit towards a 6TB replacement. A few weeks ago another started to give problems, not coming online. I backed it up and continue to use it. Last week the third drive failed. I was able to use Easus to fully recover my data (that took over 80 hours to discover and write to another drive), and I requested permission to return the drive. I was worried about my pst files collection of the past 10 years being on there, and wanted somehow to wipe the data before returning the drive. In Windows Computer Management, I was able to see the failed drive, and though it would not reactivate, it did allow me to change it from dynamic to normal drive, warning that all data would be lost. So I did. Then it allowed me to make a partition, which I did, and then it accepted a drive letter, and is now working. I'm sure it will fail again, and I already have permission to return it to the seller, but I'm afraid that if I send it in now, they will reply that it is working. How do I make it fail again before sending it in for warranty? I've already ordered and paid for another 6TB replacement, counting on the credit for this failed one.
 


If you had data on it and will be returning it with the possibility of it working you need to do a secure wipe. Tons of tools out there on bootable CDs or USB sticks that can do the job. This can take hours though, and that is on a drive that is working OK.

Here are some resources:

https://www.google.com/#q=best+tools+for+secure+erase&*&spf=64

Use a tool from a reputable source.


Also worth downloading and running the manufacturer DIAGS. Data corruption or a bad write on a HDD can cause problems, even if there is no hardware failure.
 

Minglewood

Commendable
Apr 13, 2016
8
0
1,520


My apologies. I didn't think to consider it as fraud since it actually had failed. But perhaps as another person has suggested, the failure will still show up in SMART, so perhaps the best thing to do is just return it as is and hope for the best.