Erasing data from hard drive

[newsbob]

My 3TB Seagate external desktop drive crashed. Luckily it was backed up and still under warranty. But it doesn't show up on my computer any longer.

How can I wipe the data before sending it back to Seagate for the warranty replacement?

 

[Vorpike]

Well why don't ask Seagate? Every company has different protocols, they'll probably tell you to fry it. If it isn't working, how can you format it? By some miracle, you can try disk management, and see if it shows up. Also, there's no totally reliable way of destroy data without physically destroying the drive, so even if you were able to right-click it in my computer and format, there's still a way to retrieve your files. As a computer memory company, they receive many drives a day, what makes you think they'll bother going through your stuff (if it somehow isn't part of their policy not to)?