Where do you think your hard drive goes after replacement?

[pantheroc]

This story is enlightening....

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/06/one_year_ago_ha.html#posts

[KillJoy]

Yup, yup, yup. Been there, seen that.

In our situation, it the drive is NOT under warranty, we return it to the customer.

If it is under Warranty, and will at least detect (as in be seen by a computer), we run a full DOD (56K Encryption x3) Erase on the drive.

If it will not even detect....well, a few good thumps with it powered on is about all we can do.

KillJoy

[SergntMac]

I used to dril them out and add a clock mechanism...The customers seemed to enjoy that.

[KillJoy]

I've had a few of my own drives go bad. We've always shot them with High Powered Rifles :D Lots of fun!

KillJoy

[Breadfan]

After replacement my old drives go under a sledge hammer.

Usually I just reuse them in older systems...but if the drive dies under warranty? Well, I have 1 160gb drive and 1 40gb drive sitting in my house that are dead but not returned.

If returned, the drive will be rebuilt, wiped, and either sold in bulk as a refurb, or returned to another customer.

One reason I don't bother returning drives is some companies do not return you a NEW drive. I know from experience Seagate sends back refurbished drives, the one time i went down that road it blew up 1 month after being installed.

So they're so darn cheap these days there's no point in returning them if you have data on them. It's more fun to destroy them, or take them apart to see how they work and then hose the platters.

I just nabbed a replacement drive for my main system, a 250gb Seagate for $85...like I said, storage is cheap these days.

[Wires]

I always take the time to take them apart. I have a nice set of shiny, aluminum coasters.

[ckadiddle]

Hammer Time! Hammer Time! Ham-Ham-Hammer Time!!

[hitchhiker]

I've had a few of my own drives go bad. We've always shot them with High Powered Rifles :D Lots of fun!

KillJoy

...or my .357 Mag puts a nice hole in it too!

Yeppers!

:D

[DEFYANT]

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/Defyant/3dhammas.jpg

Hammer! Hammer! Hammer!

[Steve_NC]

The good old RED DOT is the best. Hard drives will still have information on them even after formatting. There are several programs out there that can be used to truly erase hard drives, but the best thing to do is destroy the hard drive.