External hard drive not recognised by device manager, disk management or EaseUS Patrition Master. Need to wipe to return.

[buttermere]

New hard drive broke down within a week of buying. I want to return it but I can't wipe it and it's full of my unencrypted personal data.

I'm using Windows 8.1 but it's not recognised on my Mac either.

Nothing recognises it. It powers on and I can feel the disks spinning.

Any ideas on how to wipe it so I can be 100% sure it's all gone? Will I need to resport to running a magnet over it, or will that not be guaranteed to wipe the data?

 

[jason201]

To be honest, if you're concerned about your data, you'll have to take an L here and physically destroy it!
You'd have to open it down to the platter level (from the sticker side), remove the platters, and scratch em hardcore with a utility knife (or drill dozens of holes in em) and dispose when done. You'd need a decent set of TORX screwdrivers (and possibly pliers) in order to do this.

 

[USAFRet]

New hard drive broke down within a week of buying. I want to return it but I can't wipe it and it's full of my unencrypted personal data.

I'm using Windows 8.1 but it's not recognised on my Mac either.

Nothing recognises it. It powers on and I can feel the disks spinning.

Any ideas on how to wipe it so I can be 100% sure it's all gone? Will I need to resport to running a magnet over it, or will that not be guaranteed to wipe the data?

If the drive is actually non-functional, you can't.
Running a magnet over the outside of the drive will do nothing.
Opening up the case to expose the platters will completely void your warranty.

 

[popatim]

Perhaps the drive was self encrypting and therefore no need to worry. ?

 

[buttermere]

Thanks everyone for your answers. I'm going to drill a dozen holes in it, can't be arsed with fiddling around with those small screws.

 

[popatim]

That's what we do at work... and then send them out to get physically shredded.