[ale] OT: Erasing a toasted drive

[jb at sourceillustrated.com (John Wells)]

Guys,

My Dell laptop hard drive crashed two days ago.

Fortunately, the laptop is still under warranty, so they're shipping me a
free replacement. However, I'm obligated to ship them back the failed
drive, and I'm uncomfortable allowing the prioprietary source code
contained on the drive to leave my hands. It may be Dell simply throws the
failed drives away, but I'm not so sure.

Have any of you faced a similar situation, and if so, what did you do?

Thanks,
John