Linux user needs help with "dead" hard drive

Hello!

I'm trying to teach myself how to build my own computer after mine died on me. I had installed a new hard drive (maxtor, 30GB) on an old motherboard (ASUS P2L97). Obviously this was not a good idea. I will buy a new MB, memory, etc.. but would like to salvage this HD if possible.

Installing this HD as a slave in a different computer, with a master HD running Redhat 8.0 tells me that "unable to open /dev/hdd- unrecognized disk label" and "The OS thinks the geometry on /dev/hdd is 4092/16/63. Therefore, cylinder 1024 ends at 503.999 M".

Can anyone advise me on what to do? I don't mind losing the data on this HD. Is there a way to erase what's on there and start anew? If I simply plug it into a new MB, would this solve the problem, magically?

Thanks!