Externally erase drive

[BigTop]

I have an external hard drive that went bad very soon after I bought it and the manufacturer has agreed to take it back and send me a new one.

Just in case the manufacturer is able to repair the drive, I want to be absolutely sure that the sensitive data on the returned drive cannot be accessed.

Is there an external method I can use to erase the data on the drive? I understand that the drives are shielded and may not be vulnerable to simple VCR tape erasing devices.

Thanks

 

[edfair]

Depending on how it broke. If it still spins it might yield to a zero fill program.
Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[BigTop]

The reason I need a method to externally erase the drive is because my OS, Win XP Home, does not recognize the drive therefore does not assign a drive letter to it.

 

[Brona]

Hi,

I recommend using KillDisk to completely erase your drive. All data erased with it can not be restored. It also posses some high secure erase algorithms like Guttman's. Head to

http://www.killdisk.com

for more info and download.