Dell want old HDD - out of order?

dactel

The Hard Drive on my Dell laptop is failing after just six months. Fortunately its under warranty and they've sent me a new HDD. But they are asking for the old Hard Drive back. I said okay, but I will smash it with a hammer first. They said no, send it back as it is.

Ive got all my passwords and financial details on this hard drive. I know that I can wipe it, but I also know its not possible to completely clean a hard drive. Ive read in the past the only sure way to delete old data is to destroy the hard drive.

I feel very unhappy about sending the drive to Dell and having them destroy it. Infact, I think they have a cheek to ask me to do it. Who knows where these things end up - outside the UK probably, and outside the jurisdiction of UK data protection laws.

What do other people think and how much of a stand should I take against Dell?

musicboy

Not really, if you had sent the laptop off for repair then they still would have had access to the data - more so because it's still in the machine ... just reformat it and send it off. It's not unreasonable for them to want the faulty part back when they've replaced it.

Inner_Zone

Dell will return it to the manufacturer for failure analysis and then credit. So they need it intact. It's quite normal. I used to work for a company which supplied Dell and quite a few other PC manufacturers with PC components though not with HDD's. I understand your concerns about the data but it won't be of interest to the manufacturer or Dell. The failure mode will be the most important thing. There are plenty of free HDD wiping programs so use one or more of those before you return it for your own satisfaction. If you do not return it I expect Dell will charge you for its replacement.

See post 3 here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4092675

roddydogs

Under warranty & you have to replace it yourself? what if you wernt "in the know"?
If the HD fails completely, you cant format it, can you.?

gonzo127

your saying someone who is this conerned about security stores their passwords on their system, and keeps their financial data un-encypted on their computer?

anyways use DBAN if you are that worried, as this will give a very high level of protection against data recovery, as in all reality someone is not likely to use the top of the range data forensic analysis tools on a basic consumer hard drive as they will only likely be able to get a few £'000 from a normal person's financial details so probably isnt worth peoples effort if you have used the top level dban option

John_Gray

If you were purchasing a new Dell Optiplex PC, you would have found the following option on the configurator:

Keep Your Hard Drive
" Your sensitive data and hard drive(s) never have to leave your control. With Keep Your Hard Drive, you retain physical possession of a failed hard drive to ensure security of classified, proprietary or sensitive data.Note: the term of the Support Service and Keep Your Hard Drive must be the same."

3Yr Data Protection - Keep Your Hard Drive [add £13.00]

Basil1234

i used to work for maxtor warranty repair in the uk. The first things it will do is go for something called sevro write which is where the whole drive gets wiped and rewritten info including closed off section for the drive itself. the only reason they want it back is to put thru a repair process so can be sent out as a repaired drive. If you really are superfussed which i think is unfounded tbh as nothing is left on the drives at this point. Is get a huge magnet and leave on it for a couple of hours this usually does the required damage.

yangptangkipperbang

Basil1234 wrote: »

i used to work for maxtor warranty repair in the uk. .............. is where the whole drive gets wiped and rewritten.................. put thru a repair process so can be sent out as a repaired drive.

I am very surprised to read this - with the cost of HDDs being what they are I would not have thought it cost effective to repair "normal" HDDs.
I recently bought a new 1TB HDD for just over £70, cost of manufacture/shipping etc is probably half that. No one is going to try and repair an item of that low value...............

Darksun

gonzo127 wrote: »

anyways use DBAN if you are that worried, as this will give a very high level of protection against data recovery, as in all reality someone is not likely to use the top of the range data forensic analysis tools on a basic consumer hard drive as they will only likely be able to get a few £'000 from a normal person's financial details so probably isnt worth peoples effort if you have used the top level dban option

If you used the top level dban option then not even top of the range forensic analysis will be able to recover data, there's no published methods of retrieving data from a drive erased with even a fraction of the passes that dban uses. I suppose it's feasible some secret organisation has methods beyond that of current scientific understanding, but if that was the case I doubt you really having anything to worry about.

spannerzone

musicboy wrote: »

Not really, if you had sent the laptop off for repair then they still would have had access to the data - more so because it's still in the machine ... just reformat it and send it off. It's not unreasonable for them to want the faulty part back when they've replaced it.

You might as well not bother doing a format as it doesn't delete anything really, only to a casual user. Anyone with an inkling and some interest can recover almost all the datauUsing some free software to reveal nearly everything on the drive. Formatting should never be considered as a safe way to wipe a hard drive.

spannerzone

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

I am very surprised to read this - with the cost of HDDs being what they are I would not have thought it cost effective to repair "normal" HDDs.
I recently bought a new 1TB HDD for just over £70, cost of manufacture/shipping etc is probably half that. No one is going to try and repair an item of that low value...............

I guess there's lots of hard drive failures under warrantee so to recoup some money they repair them, it's probably the drive circuit board that gets replaced I guess.... then sell it as a refurb (people like a bargain!) - it's better than crushing them and chucking in landfill especiall with current WEEE directives.