up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

i know this sounds odd but the story is that my hard drive have 16 bad sectors last check went up to 22 (back up already all info)

the hard drive warranty it's over (4 years old) but the store told me it can change my hard drive for a new one as long as this one is dead.

bad sectors wont make them change as "still working".

so how can i kill the hard drive with out physical evidence (opening, smashing etc) that will void for sure the deal i have.

as odd as it sounds is my best shot to get a new one instead of waiting for this one to die (i been 3 months with this issue already)

self-test of disk utility failed to read at 10% now.

any ideas?

link|improve this question
1  
This isn't a site to ask questions on how to get away with not buying a new hard drive...if the warranty is gone just save or fork out the small amount for a new one...hard drives don't cost a huge amount, even for a bigger size... – zkriesse Jul 14 '11 at 1:06
What an interesting question :p – Thomas Boxley Jul 14 '11 at 2:13
1  
This isn't related to Ubuntu, but rather is more hardware specific. – Marco Ceppi♦ Jul 14 '11 at 3:20
feedback

closed as off topic by James Henstridge, Jorge Castro, Marco Ceppi♦ Jul 14 '11 at 3:19

Questions on Ask Ubuntu - Stack Exchange are expected to generally relate to Ubuntu, within the scope defined in the faq.

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Maybe microwaving it would do the trick.

Bear in mind that I've never done this myself, so I don't know what the effects of microwaving a hard drive are or whether it's dangerous to your health. But they're plenty of interesting videos online to watch of hard drives being microwaved.

If I were you, I would just bite the bullet and buy a new one. Like you said, the hard drive is past its warranty, and I would feel like I were cheating them by passing off deliberate destruction as accidental.

link|improve this answer
You would have to burn it so long to effect the platters it my look obvious. – wojox Jul 14 '11 at 2:50
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Well there isn't anyway to kill the drive without showing evidence that you done it! However you can partition around the part of the drive thats going bad so you don't notice it dying.

  • 1 I Use spinrite to find out what part of the drive is going bad. But I think Ubuntu has a app that can tell you what parts of your drive is having issues. I believe its called disk utillity.

  • 2 If its the first part of the drive that failing. ( example: I had a drive was failing from 4% to 10% on a 250G drive then was failing 12% to 13% rest of the drive was fine. I deleted all Partitions. Then made a partition of 50g labeled it "Do Not Use" .)

At which point i reinstalled my Operating System ,and remade my partitions ( Windows may throw a fit about this while you install but once you get it installed It no longer knows the difference. ) which lowered the drives Temp. Because, it was no longer trying to access the part of the drive that was in question.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You have any magnets that you could attach to the drive and power it on.

link|improve this answer
Magnet doesn't destroy the drive Thats a Misconception. It just Erase the Data on the drive. However your Ideal about turning it on with a Very Strong magnet Stuck to it. Might just cause enough friction to finish the drive off if not try pulling the Strong Magnet off with it running and putting it back on Several times. Might get lucky. – freebird Jul 14 '11 at 1:53
I saw it on an episode of "Burn Notice". – wojox Jul 14 '11 at 2:49
feedback

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.