Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Help: How to erase new 2 TB WD HD that's dead

Help: How to erase new 2 TB WD HD that's dead
Thread Tools
amazing
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 18, 2010, 03:27 PM
 
I was helping a friend install a WD 2 TB HD in her iMac 2007. Her internal HD cloned successfully to her new HD, the iMac booted successfully off the external HD, and that external HD showed up completely normally in Disk Utility.

After successful installation in the iMac, everything seemed normal until we started copying large folders to the HD. At 139 GB of 149 GB copy to the internal HD, everything froze. Only way to proceed was by using the power button. Had to restart off the original HD in an external dock.

Upon viewing the HD in Disk Utility, the drive is now pictured in a red font, with a message displaying in the right hand panel, again in red, that the HD has failed. There is no option to erase or reformat. Downloaded SMART Utility, which confirms that the HD is dead.

Since we want to RMA the HD and get a new one, the question is how to ensure that no sensitive data is on the returned HD, e.g. tax returns, passwords, emails, photos.

The HD is currently allowing us to put folders and docs in the trash to to "secure empty trash." Slow, but it's working. At this point I don't know if that will continue to work, or if everything will be successfully deleted. We're just plodding along, but I'm wondering if there's another and better way to erase the HD?

Can anyone think of a way to zero-out the HD?
     
P
Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 18, 2010, 03:33 PM
 
In Disk Utility, you have the option to erease the drive by overwriting data with zeroes. Very slow, but it's a set and forget thing
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
amazing  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 18, 2010, 04:28 PM
 
Well, with the damaged HD, none of those options even show up in Disk Utilities. Nada. There's just the read warning in the right-hand pane, no options to erase etc.

So I was hoping there might be some third party solution. 'Course I was also just thinking of parking the bare HD on top of a speaker magnet, but was wondering if that would even work?
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 18, 2010, 04:34 PM
 
You could try getting a SATA to USB adapter, then plugging the HDD in via USB. I think if it's plugged in that way it can't report the SMART status. You can then attempt to erase it.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
amazing  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 19, 2010, 01:26 AM
 
We have an external dock: once we receive the replacement HD I'll put it in the dock and see if it can be erased that way. Meantime, I don't want to open the iMac any more than I have to...
     
King Bob On The Cob
Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Illinois
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 19, 2010, 09:29 PM
 
Originally Posted by amazing View Post
Well, with the damaged HD, none of those options even show up in Disk Utilities. Nada. There's just the read warning in the right-hand pane, no options to erase etc.

So I was hoping there might be some third party solution. 'Course I was also just thinking of parking the bare HD on top of a speaker magnet, but was wondering if that would even work?
I don't think they'll be powerful enough. Disk Degaussers are really powerful.
     
reader50
Administrator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: California
Status: Online
Reply With Quote
Nov 19, 2010, 10:38 PM
 
If you are willing to not return it, then securely erasing the disk becomes easy. Chopsaw, shotgun, circular saw, hammer, small explosive charge, 5 minutes in boiling water, etc.

If the contents are truly sensitive (classified, love notes from side girlfriend, ledgers from the weed sales) then you should "securely erase" the drive, and never mind the return credit.
     
amazing  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 20, 2010, 07:53 PM
 
Yeah, I have a friend with a shredding business. He just got an inquiry about whether there's a shredder that could handle destroying 100 HDs. He was going to try something soon, don't know when...be interesting to watch...

Since it's not my HD, it's not my call. We're currently waiting for the replacement HD--once the offending HD is out of the iMac, I'm hoping it will show up as erasable in Disk Utility. I'll report back at that time.
     
amazing  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 26, 2010, 08:31 PM
 
So, the replacement HD arrived (a WD 2 TB 7200 rpm), was reformatted, cloned, and took a 150 GB copy with no problems.

The transplant went as expected, though I was a bunch more cautious, namely not buttoning everything up until after taking some time to check the SMART status on the internal drive.

The failed WD 2 TB HD, once again in an external firewire dock, showed up as formatable, since MacOS doesn't check the SMART status of an external HD. The option to erase the HD was available, and the failed HD even verified as "OK".

Bit of a disappointment that, that the MacOS can't spot the failed SMART status of an external drive...

It's now undergoing a 35 pass reformat. Don't know how long that will take, best to err on the cautious side.
     
Cold Warrior
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 26, 2010, 08:58 PM
 
35 pass is overkill. 7 pass is fine.
     
reader50
Administrator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: California
Status: Online
Reply With Quote
Nov 26, 2010, 09:41 PM
 
MacOS will read the SMART status on an external drive connected via an eSATA card. I have a Firmtek SeriTek 2ME4-E card in my G5. All connected drives read as SATA drives, with SMART status.

note: not all eSATA cards will pass the SMART data to the OS. Check the card specs first.
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 26, 2010, 09:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cold Warrior View Post
35 pass is overkill. 7 pass is fine.
7 pass is overkill, single pass is fine.

There is some industry debate as to how many times a drive needs to be rewritten in order for the old data to be one hundred percent irretrievable. But Henley, who worked eleven years in law enforcement as a Computer Forensics examiner says he has never encountered an instance where one complete cycle of character writes didn't work.

Nathan Jones, director of sales for White Canyon agrees and says that the Department of Defense standard for sensitive data is three complete passes and a verification check. However, he notes, after a single pass on today's modern hard drives, you would need an electronic microscope to see the data, and that no software could retrieve it. He believes the misconceptions regarding the number of passes needed to completely wipe the drive stem from information that was written with older hard drive technology in mind.
Wipe, Don't Reformat, Your Old Hard Drives - www.smallbusinesscomputing.com

-t
     
AKcrab
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Wasilla, Alaska
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Nov 26, 2010, 09:58 PM
 
SMART is so stupid that it hardly matters anyway. I would say that 2% of failed hard drives actually tell me so in the SMART status.

(Maybe disk utility is the REAL problem.)
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:56 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,