Send back my hdd, should I wipe it?

I'm getting a replacement HDD as my current one is starting to die. That said, I have to send my current one back to Lenovo. I was wondering how I should send it back? Format the partitions? (If so how am I supposed to completely wipe it? Use a third party partition manager to wipe after a restart?)

 

you don't necessarily have to send it back.   call support on monday and ask if you can keep it under the HDD retention policy.

http://www.lenovo.com/services_warranty/us/en/hdd_retention.html



if you do send it in and want to wipe it first, use Secure Data Disposal.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/TVAN-SDD.html

 

Lenovo offers a BIOS Setup Menu Extension Utility for relatively new ThinkPads. The utility enables the BIOS option to securely erase Solid-State Drives (using the ATA security erase unit command). I have no idea whether you can use this functionality on normal hard drives, but it is worth a try.

Alternately, you can use the HDDErase utility, which also uses the ATA security erase unit command to wipe the entire drive.

 

only FDE drives and SSDs.

"A new entry, Disk Encryption HDD, will be shown in the Security menu of the BIOS Setup Utility menu if the HDD with FDE (Full Disk Encryption (FDE) is embedded in the ThinkPad computer."

"A new entry, Solid State Drive, will be shown in the Security menu of the BIOS Setup Utility menu if the SSD (Solid State Drive) is embedded in the ThinkPad computer."

 

That is indeed what the page said. I was, however, hoping that Lenovo engineers would use some common sense and enable this feature for HDDs that support ATA security erase unit (and only choose not to document it to avoid adding burden to their tech support department).

It makes sense to support this feature (secure drive erasure) for all HDDs in the BIOS, because ThinkPad BIOS issues the ATA security freeze command on boot up, which prevents HDDs and SSDs from accepting further ATA security commands. In other words, you cannot perform ATA security erase unit with a program (the workaround implemented in HDDErase supports only some drives). I am okay with BIOS issuing ATA security freeze on boot up -- but if Lenovo wants to prevent us from doing ATA security erase the normal way (i.e., using hdparm or HDDErase), they should compensate us by giving us another way out (e.g., BIOS support for ATA security erase on all drives).

Okay, I will get off the soap box now...

 

Interesting, I will try that. Just wondering, can I just do it with the partition manager I have now? Partition Wizard? There is a wipe drive option.

 

depends on how comprehensive of a wipe it will do.   SDD is DOD-grade.