How to erase HDD on HP 410i controller?

[CougTek]

I have a little problem here. We have a failed hard drive that's been replaced under warranty by HP. But the failed drive has valuable information on it, so we'd like to erase it before sending it back. I plugged the defective drive in an HP server with an HP 410i controller. We haven't bought the Smart Array Advanced Pack License key that enables the "erase drive" functionality. None of the utilities on Hiren's boot CD see the drive. It is crrently the only drive connected in the server (no OS).

How can I erase the drive?

 

[Mercutio]

Rare earth magnet?

 

[LunarMist]

Why not have it destroyed professionally?

 

[Handruin]

Does the value of the valuable information outweigh the cost of a replacement drive? If so physically destroy the drive and pay for a new drive. That is your cost of business. Also, how does one erase a failed drive if the drive is failed?

Edit...if the information is so valuable, please consider encrypting it so that you can return a failed drive without risk of someone getting your data.

 

[jtr1962]

If the drive failed, it's highly unlikely anyone except the NSA would be able to get information off of it. Certainly HP isn't going to bother. Most likely they will send you a new drive, and recycle the old one. Or even if they refurbish it, they'll probably need to low-level format the platters, wiping out the info permanently.

I personally think too many hard drives are needlessly destroyed because of worry the data will fall into the wrong hands. Think of it this way. If you found an old drive in a dumpster, would you bother sending it to the NSA to see what's on it? Most people will just see if the drive works, and then proceed to format it and use it. A few passes with any commercial drive erasing software should be sufficient if you wish to dispose of or resell an old hard drive. If the drive doesn't work at all, chances are good the data on it is safe from prying eyes. It's just not worth it to try and get data off a drive unless you're certain that the drive contains valuable data. Imagine spending thousands of dollars only to find a drive has family photos?

Incidentally, I'm even hearing of people destroying SSDs because they fear the data will fall into the wrong hands. Once you secure erase an SSD, the data is toast, as in cannot be recovered by any means by anyone, including the NSA.

 

[CougTek]

A defective drive doesn't mean the drive is totally unaccessible, hence the need to erase the data on it. We have someone here with strong neodynium magnets, but we won't need to resort to this. The HP server we have has an OS on an internal SD card. We simply booted on it and then we erased the drive's content with a Linux command line.

Thanks all for your input.

 

[Howell]

What was the original failure mode?

 

[jtr1962]

Erase should be sufficient. If you look here, one of the comments mentions the following:

Actually, after a proper overwrite, there should be NO recoverable information in any modern hard drive. The thing about using atomic force microscopy only applies to a subset of PRML drives, which were obsolete more than 10 years ago. For any hard drive made in the last decade or so, there is no known microscopy technology in existence that would allow usable data to be extracted after a proper overwrite, and below that you get into quantum effects that make such a microscope theoretically impossible anyways.

 

[Bozo]

I have a little problem here. We have a failed hard drive that's been replaced under warranty by HP. But the failed drive has valuable information on it, so we'd like to erase it before sending it back. I plugged the defective drive in an HP server with an HP 410i controller. We haven't bought the Smart Array Advanced Pack License key that enables the "erase drive" functionality. None of the utilities on Hiren's boot CD see the drive. It is crrently the only drive connected in the server (no OS).

How can I erase the drive?

458 Winchester Mag?

 

[Stereodude]

Is it SATA or SAS or what?

 

[CougTek]

Is it SATA or SAS or what?

SAS. I don't know what was the failure reason. I saw the front LED turn yellow instead of green and I asked HP for a replacement, which was granted without question. All I know is that the drive is still readable (and writable). Bad sectors, SMART error, whatever. The server tells me it's bad, so it's being replaced. The replacement is already in the server and the array has been fully restored.

 

[LunarMist]

I suppose you were lucky in that case, but what is the policy for drives that are not wipeable? Doesn't your company have a data security SOP?

 

[mubs]

I'm even hearing of people destroying SSDs because they fear the data will fall into the wrong hands. Once you secure erase an SSD, the data is toast, as in cannot be recovered by any means by anyone, including the NSA.

What about phones? I've read that when you erase everything on the phone or do a factory reset (all through the phone's menu), nothing gets erased, only directory / pointers. It appears when the phone is connected with a cable to a PC with the right software (typically people who repair phones) they are able to dump everything on to the PC's hard disk. I'm clinging on to some old phones for this reason.

 

[jtr1962]

What about phones? I've read that when you erase everything on the phone or do a factory reset (all through the phone's menu), nothing gets erased, only directory / pointers. It appears when the phone is connected with a cable to a PC with the right software (typically people who repair phones) they are able to dump everything on to the PC's hard disk. I'm clinging on to some old phones for this reason.

What you describe is really more a software issue than anything else. A proper factory reset on a phone would overwrite all user data stored in flash memory. Apparently that doesn't happen, perhaps because it would take too long for the average user. Don't some phones store everything on a MicroSD card? That would certainly make protecting personal data a lot simpler.

 

[mubs]

Many older phones didn't come with expanded storage. My current phone does, but I never stored anything on the MicroSD card other than Google Maps..

 

[LunarMist]

I thought that most of the modern phones have an encryption option. One of the corporate apps I use requires it, even for the removable memory card.

 

[Stereodude]

SAS. I don't know what was the failure reason. I saw the front LED turn yellow instead of green and I asked HP for a replacement, which was granted without question. All I know is that the drive is still readable (and writable). Bad sectors, SMART error, whatever. The server tells me it's bad, so it's being replaced. The replacement is already in the server and the array has been fully restored.

Can't you plug it into another PC with a SAS controller and format it (or similar)?

What sort of array was it?

 

[Bozo]

If it was in some sort of RAID array, it wouldn't be readable anyway. Not without being installed back in the array.

 

[Stereodude]

If it was in some sort of RAID array, it wouldn't be readable anyway. Not without being installed back in the array.

That depends on the RAID level. RAID-1 would, but that's where I was headed with my question.

 

[Howell]

Anyone for jerky? This horse is good and tender!

 

[Mercutio]

On my way to visit my folks in Knoxville, I stopped at a Gas Station and Jerky Store someplace in Kentucky. I thought they might've been kidding but I had to see it. The Jerky Store was real, probably 400 square feet of floor to ceiling jerky varieties, including stuff like Chipotle Alligator and Ostrich jerky.