FYI: Wiping a hard drive really clean

[Net Llama!]

On Thu, 26 May 2005, Matthew Carpenter wrote:
> 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 :)

Plus /dev/zero is much faster to write.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman                        netllama at linux-sxs.org
LlamaLand				http://netllama.linux-sxs.org