Ylod hdd

I've got old 60gb model recently got YLOD already got 2 slims so want to get rid of this but I've got all my psn acc's pics of family etc and would like to know how I could wipe the hard drive.

Apparently if I remove the hdd and insert it again it'll be prompted to format it on boot up if the YLOD is fixed can this be confirmed? If not what method could I use

Any help would be very much appreciated!