Hard Drive help

[SpaceBooger]

This morning I woke up to an error on my main pc stating that it could not find a bootable drive.
So this means sometime during the night my computer restarted and did not start back up correctly...
Anyway the cause is not the problem...
The problem is that I am guessing the Boot Sector is bad. The reason for this is I changed the STATA cable and plugged it into 3 other ports on the motherboard and nothing happened, but when I put it in my external case it showed up just fine on my laptop via USB.
So the data was still on my harddrive, but it wont boot. I called HP and jumped through their hoops and they determined that it was a bad harddrive (they wouldn't believe me) and since I have 5 days until my warranty is up they are sending me a new one to install.

So I have two questions:

1. So I am worried that if it is the motherboard instead of the harddrive, my warranty will be up by the time the new drive arrives so I wont know - Does this sound like a bad hardrive?

and

2. How worried should I be about all of my roms, underground gamer/bit gamer stuff installed on the old drive since I have to send it in to HP... will I get busted for everything I downloaded?

I think I am going to stick to making my PCs for my next one... I love the deal I got, but hate dealing with HP.

[Mozgus]

If you're worried about any data being found, just do a low level format using a utility from one of the big names. Maxtor, WD, etc all have cd bootable apps you can run, or you can look for "HawkPE" on demonoid, as it has these and many more utilities you can boot from.

As for the issue, it does sound like the boot sector got corrupted somehow. That shit has happened to me quite a few times over the years. You can try the repair tools that windows discs come with. Vista/7's repair tool actually worked for me once, when I made a mistake in dualbooting XP and accidentally overwrote all references to the new OS.

[marurun]

If it turns out the motherboard is bad it's simply an extension of the same problem. It should still be covered. Argue that it is if they try and pull a fast one. The problem isn't "the hard drive is bad". The problem is that the computer won't boot from the hard drive. If replacing the hard drive doesn't solve that problem the ticket is still open.

Also, I suggest getting (via another PC of some sort) a bootable CD like UBCD Win. This will let you boot the PC from a CD (with SATA drivers) and see if the drive shows up attached to the motherboard. It will also let you do gov't quality HD wipes with the included tools.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

[SpaceBooger]

If it turns out the motherboard is bad it's simply an extension of the same problem. It should still be covered. Argue that it is if they try and pull a fast one. The problem isn't "the hard drive is bad". The problem is that the computer won't boot from the hard drive. If replacing the hard drive doesn't solve that problem the ticket is still open.

Also, I suggest getting (via another PC of some sort) a bootable CD like UBCD Win. This will let you boot the PC from a CD (with SATA drivers) and see if the drive shows up attached to the motherboard. It will also let you do gov't quality HD wipes with the included tools.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

which of the programs do you recommend for the HD wipe?
If I just connect it to another pc (using a usb to sata cable) and use windows drive format, would that be good enough?

[marurun]

which of the programs do you recommend for the HD wipe?
If I just connect it to another pc (using a usb to sata cable) and use windows drive format, would that be good enough?

I do not remember the name of the program, but there a are a couple which, rather than simply formatting, will do thinks like a 3-pass government wipe which writes 1s, then 0s, then random data on 3 separate passes. I always just used whatever's on UBCD for Windows.

[Anapan]

I agree with the above posts. UBCD has a couple of government wipe programs. Just wanted to add that If you ever find a harddrive that has unreadable data, the best program I've found for it is called R-Studio. Saved a few of my clients data when there was no other way to get the data back. There's one for CDs and DVDs aswell by Infinadyne called CD/DVD Diagnostic.

[SpaceBooger]

Ok, so I deduced that the problem is the motherboard, not the hard drive. I can not boot to the dvd drive, which is also SATA, and neither the hard drive or DVD-Rom show up in the bios.
I called HP and they are sending a dude out to install a new motherboard on Thursday.

So my new question to all of you is:
Since someone is coming out to fix my motherboard, should I still wipe the Hard Drive? If the hard drive is not the issue I really don't want to loose all my stuff, but I am worried will the dude repairing see all of the torrents and such that I have on the hard drive...
So what do you think - leave it the way it is and not worry that someone else (who will be in my home) will maybe see the contents of my harddrive?
or
Should I wipe it anyway and start clean?

Oh, thanks to all for the help!

[Niode]

You could always put all your torrents and shit in a folder and then make it hidden, then turn off view hidden files and folders in folder options. Then you can watch over his shoulder if he has to use your OS, if he goes snooping round tell him that he's invading your privacy and to GTFO.

He shouldn't need to boot the OS further than the desktop to see that he's repaired the system.

To sum up, he shouldn't be snooping. It's not his job to go all piracy police on your ass.

I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure you're in the same room.

[SpaceBooger]

Ok, I used DiskEraser to wipe my old harddrive and HP sent me a new one.
Now that the problem has been determined as a MotherBoard issue, should I keep my old harddrive that may have some errors from the past, or use the "new" refurbished harddrive HP sent me.
I usually would take the new one over the used one, but both are used but one is refurbished...

[Niode]

Since the motherboard is the problem the old hard drive should be fine. It probably just got corrupt from the motherboard problem. Just format it and use it. Don't put anything critical on there for the time being and if you get no problems from it, it should be safe to use as a normal drive.