On Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 11:19 AM Neal Becker <ndbecker2(a)gmail.com> wrote:
[...] e.g. erasing the partition table on the drive (I don't have
another machine handy to verify this), [...]
If it was just erasing the partition table the drive would still be
visible using lsblk, and you could re-partition it with fdisk, etc.
You mentioned a surge suppressor strip - any chance it has already
suppressed a surge in the past? If so, it might not be functioning as
a surge suppressor anymore.