I remember a post by Greg Freemeyer stating that there was no reported case of recoverable data from a 40GB hard drive that had been written erased with all zeros. I would take that to mean some value of "modern" not > ~ 8 years old. <br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 1:37 PM, Lightner, Jeff <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:JLightner@water.com">JLightner@water.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Of course you don't need a software at all.<br>
<br>
Erasing the data in a filesystem then unmounting the filesystem and running:<br>
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda1/scramble bs=1M<br>
<br>
- will write random data on the partition (sda1 in the above - you can substitute other partitions/drive letters as necessary)<br>
<br>
However, any time I've seen this question come up someone invariably posts that it really isn't necessary for "modern drives". They never quite say what their definition of "modern" is.<br>
<br>
In the past it was required to do something like the above multiple times but it really isn't necessary unless you're doing DOD or CIA work.<br>
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-----Original Message-----<br>
From: <a href="mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org">ale-bounces@ale.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org">ale-bounces@ale.org</a>] On Behalf Of Pete Hardie<br>
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 10:52 AM<br>
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts<br>
Subject: Re: [ale] erasing a hard drive<br>
<br>
Thermite!<br>
<br>
On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 10:37, Robert <<a href="mailto:rs@ale.spam.futz.org">rs@ale.spam.futz.org</a>> wrote:<br>
>>I've drawn a blank. What is the name of that free software that I can<br>
>>use to erase a hard drive? It will run multiple overwrites?<br>
>><br>
>>I've got a number of old drives I need to dispose of and I don't want to<br>
>>bother trying to figure out what's on them.<br>
>><br>
><br>
> shred?<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Arguing with an Engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud.<br>
> After a while you realize the pig is enjoying it.<br>
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