Re: How to zero a failing disk drive before disposal?

A good question Ronald.  I worked for a provider of services for the 
statutory care of children (eg removed from parents). There are 
significant penalties for certain types of information loss.  We 
bench-drilled the hard-disks before sending them (out of our chain of 
custody) to a furnace.  Admittedly this is an extreme case and for the 
reasons already stated in this thread, there was no other way to ensure, 
say a name and location, were not available.

And yes, all machines have full disk encryption (FDE).

For personal devices we overwrite the device multiple times, though I'm 
interested in what a "ATA Secure Erase" does to a healthy storage device 
and whether all sectors are touched?