Hard Drive Content After Removing From Raid

[Clinderw]

Hello,

One of my drives failed and i'm planning on sending it to the manufacturer but was wondering if there is ANY way to see what is on the drive once its removed from a Raid set up. It's private information, i just want to make sure its 100% unreadable.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[alexg]

If drive can be mounted, you could try writing 0's (something like this "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ada0") or you can try mounting the drive in Linux and use shred command (I don't think FreeNAS includes shred command). If drive can't be mounted, I would forget about returning the drive and just destroy it using any method of your choice listed here

http://www.wikihow.com/Destroy-a-Hard-Drive

I personally like method #4 - shooting the drive.

 

[gpsguy]

No easily. You might try wiping it with a vendor tool or Darik's Boot and Nuke. Depending on the degree of failure, they might not run.

Rather than shipping it back, you could physically destroy it. Disassmble it and make a windchime using the disks. Or, use it for target practice with a 30-06.

 

[joelmusicman]

Umm, it sounds like he wants to RMA for a warranty. I doubt any manufacturer would honor that with bullet holes...

 

[gpsguy]

That's why I started the paragraph with "Rather than ship it back". Some organizations would rather destroy the media than take any chances with it.

 

[joelmusicman]

That's why I started the paragraph with "Rather than ship it back". Some organizations would rather destroy the media than take any chances with it.

That part I totally understand. I'm actually involved (very minor role) in the disposal process for my organization that needs to be HIPAA compliant, and our hard drives are removed, degaussed, and sent to a special facility for destruction.

Really though, even bullet holes won't stop someone from accessing your data if they are determined...

My point is that the OP WANTS to send it back.


OP: Having only 1/4th or 1/6th of your pool's data present on a single drive means that you're already MILES ahead of an NTFS or similar file system. If the drive is mountable, there's always the old standby of DBAN using the DoD short wipe (which does 3 passes over all the data). I'd recommend running the tool with ONLY the drive you want erased attached to the system.