Linux hard disk repair tool

If you are looking for standard procedures and reliable methods, you could read the Guidelines for Media Sanitization (PDF) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

For any given medium, there are three basic methods:

• Clear
• Purge
• Physical Destruction

For hard drives they recommend:

Clear:

Overwrite media by using agency-approved and validated overwriting technologies/methods/tools.

Physical Destruction:

• Disintegrate
• Shred
• Pulverize
• Incinerate: incinerate hard disk drives by burning the hard disk drives in a licensed incinerator.

Purge:

1. Purge using Secure Erase. The Secure Erase software can be downloaded from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) CMRR site.
2. Purge hard disk drives by either purging the hard disk drive in an NSA/CSS-approved automatic degausser or by disassembling the hard disk drive and purging the enclosed platters with an NSA/CSS-approved degaussing wand.
3. Purge media by using agency-approved and validated purge technologies/tools.

Recommendations for flash media (SSDs) are similar, except that degaussing solid state drives is not a viable way to purge them as the data is not stored on magnetic platters.

I had this exact problem on a (tower) server just like you explain, and it was easy:

smartctl will output the serial number of the drive

Vendors sometimes ship their own specific tools, like hdparm, that will do the same.

So output the serial of the bad drive, and then use a dentist's mirror and a flashlight to find the drive.

On a rackmount you'll usually have indicator lights like other people have said, but I bet the same would apply.