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Author Topic: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.  (Read 2265 times)

Cornfield

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Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« on: June 12, 2018, 05:49:57 pm »

One of my raid drives has failed and supplier is providing a replacement if I return the dead unit.  How can I guard against the drive being repaired and my data being accessible?
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jrsforums

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2018, 06:17:50 pm »

What OS? On windows, go to disk manager. You allocate and format. If you want a better erase you’ll need something like bleach bit.
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John

Cornfield

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2018, 05:16:02 am »

It is in a Win 10 PC.  The issue I have is the drive cannot be accessed and I'm concerned about returning the drive and someone may be able to repair it and access my files.
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jrsforums

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2018, 08:46:25 am »

It is in a Win 10 PC.  The issue I have is the drive cannot be accessed and I'm concerned about returning the drive and someone may be able to repair it and access my files.

Google ‘windows disk manager’
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John

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2018, 09:59:26 am »

A month ago the hard drive that has all of my this year's raw photos on it seemed to die on me (Windows 10.) "Computer Management" suggested that it needed to be formatted, but I didn't want to do that until I could at least try to recover some of my files. I Googled for software that might do that and found a recommendation for Data Rescue 5 (available for Mac or PC.)

The nice thing about Data Rescue 5 is that you can download a free trial version which will scan your drive and show you a list of all files that it can recover, but it won't let you recover them. If you like the list, you can shell out $99 to get the working version.

I did, and it recovered all of my photos and most other files on that drive.

So I suggest you at least try the free download version to see if anything can be easily recovered. Or, if the drive isn't physically damaged, you might try a low-level format.
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-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)

rdonson

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2018, 10:46:27 am »

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-completely-erase-a-hard-drive-2626173

When I've got a bad drive that I don't want to be re-used I simply use my drill press and put a couple of holes in it. 
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Regards,
Ron

Cornfield

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2018, 10:49:14 am »

Thnks for the replies.

I think scrapping the drive with a drill is the best solution as I don't want to have any risk of it being repaired.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2018, 10:53:54 am by Cornfield »
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jrsforums

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2018, 10:24:19 pm »

Thnks for the replies.

I think scrapping the drive with a drill is the best solution as I don't want to have any risk of it being repaired.

Suggest you check with supplier.
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John

Joe Towner

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Re: Clean a drive that cannot be mounted.
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2018, 05:56:44 pm »

Thnks for the replies.

I think scrapping the drive with a drill is the best solution as I don't want to have any risk of it being repaired.

Most suppliers will not replace a drive that has been damaged, even if you're doing it to protect the data on it.  Dell and others has a feature where you keep the dead drive, but it's at a premium.  What RAID level was the drive a part of? 

If it's part of a large array of RAID5 or RAID6, the ability to recover data off a single disk is almost nil - you'd have 1/(number of drives - number of parity drive) of the information.  If it's a RAID1, the disk has a full copy of everything that was stored on it.

You may be better off purchasing a new replacement drive if it's standard disks (no funky firmware).
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