My motherboard died need to erase hard-drives

I purchased a new PC which I have not been happy with, Yesterday the ASUS P5N32-SLI motherboard died after just 3 weeks and I want to return the computer.

The problem is there are things on the hard drives that must be erased. Since I can't boot up the machine I'm in panic mode. The new PC uses 2 hard drives in stripped RAID formation (2) WD 7K 8M SATA2 WD2000JS

I have a dell dimension 4800 with (listed on the device manager)
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
-intel 82801FB/FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers -266F
-Intel 82801FB SATA AHCI Controller
-Primary IDE controller

So it has some sort of SATA support. I would like to load up the New PC's drives into my Dell and nuke them. But I don't know the basic concepts at work here, how do I power the new drives, how can I hook them as a slave to my Dell master or even if that is possible. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you in Advance - trag -

 

Hello,
I would suggest the following:
Take the pc back to the store you purchased it. Tell them that you want to return the damaged goods AND that you want to erase all data that's on the disks. In the store, they can plug the disks into another machine, then use Darik's Boot 'N' Nuke to erase everything. Plus do another 2-3 formats randomly. Be persistent and angry and threaten to sue if they disregard.
I suggest you do not remove the disks. If you do, you might lose the warranty and they might claim you ruined the mobo. Keep the things inside, go back to the store and at the spot, do what you need. Don't bow to pressure or anything. Take your time, burn some apps to a cd so you can use them in the store. And take a chair, sit in their repair lab for 2-3 hours and erase all your data once they swap / reenable access to them.
Mrk

 

Good advice thank you so much. Unfortunately it's a mail order PC, I think I can get the PCs close enough to do the wipe without removing the hard-drives (I bet those prics looks for screwdriver marks with a magnifying glass Lol) So that was a good tip.

 

With many PC's you won't have to use a screwdriver, except for possibly switching the drive holding hardware.

If you absolutely must wipe the drives and you can't get them to work in your Dell (for whatever reason), one approach to use would be to pick up an external USB-based drive enclosure that supports a SATA drive. Pop the drives into the enclosure and wipe from any USB enabled PC available. The external enclosure is something that will be useful down the road anyway.

Blue

 

Interesting, I have a WD USB/firewire HD and 2 Seagate usb/firewire drives I'll have to look that up and see what sort of connections they have. I doubt the seagate would work but the topic is interesting anyway.

 

I worried for nothing an extra pair of the exact type cables I needed were dangling deep within the recesses of my Dell just waiting for me. But then I mucked up the BIOS something terrible, a half-dozen blood curdling BIOS beeps later, along with a few blue screens, I'm back in business.

Tomorrow I'll take the files I need, (amine, some PDA stuff etc) erase the important stuff with a 35X pass, I'll leave my porn collection intact for those monkeys who built this god awful computer (ABS) Then I'll buy another Dell I guess, (sigh - every Dell I buy gets worse and worse) I don't have time to build one myself, any of you PC guru's live in the Little Rock, AR (USA) area?

No likely I know. When I was in Japan I had to describe Arkansas as "Texas no tonari desu" (it's next to Texas) because no one had ever heard of it.
Thanks everyone

 

Hello,
Why don't you build your own machine? It does not have to be Dell.
You can take mobo from Asus, Abit, Corsair RAM, NEC DVD etc... Assemble it at any decent store... Or yourself.
Mrk