Homer S. wrote:

<<snipped>>

> The problem: I used the drive mainly for temporary storage of data from my
> customer's computers - customers who include attorneys, doctors, insurance agencies
> and regular people. I can't return the drive to WD for repair knowing that all of
> that personal data still exists on the drive - I take pride in protecting my
> customer's data and have never had a mishap in 16 years of servicing PC's. However,
> I would still like to have this drive replaced. To do that, I have to be 100% sure
> that the data on the platters has been completely wiped clean before shipping it to
> WD, and since the drive won't initialize, I can't use software to accomplish that.
> I'm thinking that a strong magnetic field, such as that from an old degaussing coil
> or a strong (rare earth) external magnet might do the trick. I've even thought of
> experimenting with some old, still functioning drives to observe the effects of
> exposing them to external sources of magnetism. Although, before doing that, I came
> across this group and thought it would be a good idea to ask around here.
>
> I'd appreciate any input, opinions, discussion, personal experience, or whatever
> concerning this issue.
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Jack C. - aka Homer S., aka Navin R. Johnson

For your own peace of mind and to avoid any future issues involving
confidential information, go ahead and physically destroy the hard
drive. The practice here is to remove the platters and drill holes
through them. It is a small price to pay in order not to get caught
up into a breach of confidentiality lawsuit that costs thousands of
dollars to defend (and win) or be involved in one and be subpoenaed
as a witness. In over 20 years, we have never returned a single HD
to the manufacturer for warranty service or replacement or even used
an outside data recovery outfit...the broken drive is destroyed.