FYI: Wiping a hard drive really clean

[Matthew Carpenter]

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Mike Reinehr wrote:

>
>
> I just threw out /dev/random on a whim. I imagine that there might
> be a particular pattern, like is used in testing RAM, that might
> guarantee a successfull wipe in fewer passes.
>
As a forensic analyst, please use /dev/zero  :)

If you use the drive again and it's new incantation is compromised or
use for bad things (like kiddie porn) the job is made easier when
unused space is all zeros.  (let your 1's be 1's and your 0's be 0's :)

- --
Matthew Carpenter
matt at eisgr.com                          http://www.eisgr.com/

Enterprise Information Systems
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