wiping hard drive

dragonember · 07-26-2008, 12:17 PM

just a quick question. I have a hard drive that I want to give to someone but I need to wipe it first. booting up in a linux distro and typing "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1M" will delete all of the data by setting all of the data to "0" on the hard drive right?

**K-B** · 07-28-2008, 03:25 PM

How sensitive is your data? I don't know if the above command will work or not, but I would just use a gparted Live CD and format the drive. Or if it's sensitive data that you're trying to erase, use Darik's Boot & Nuke
http://www.dban.org/

dragonember · 07-28-2008, 06:43 PM

credit card information, personal data (web browser stuffs thats left around in the cache like user names and passwords), et cetera. stuff like that.

lensman3 · 07-30-2008, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragonember

just a quick question. I have a hard drive that I want to give to someone but I need to wipe it first. booting up in a linux distro and typing "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1M" will delete all of the data by setting all of the data to "0" on the hard drive right?

That will work until you over write the OS and then everything stops. If root "/" is on hda it will work until the OS is over written or in this case /dev/zero or /dev/hda. If this is a secondary drive then this will work fine. I think the accepted number of times to over write the data is 3 times. After that even the CIA can't read it.

Take a look at the program "shred". It is written for this. Look at the man for shred, there are a lot of problems with some file system types not getting erased.

**K-B** · 07-31-2008, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lensman3

That will work until you over write the OS and then everything stops. If root "/" is on hda it will work until the OS is over written or in this case /dev/zero or /dev/hda. If this is a secondary drive then this will work fine. I think the accepted number of times to over write the data is 3 times. After that even the CIA can't read it.

Take a look at the program "shred". It is written for this. Look at the man for shred, there are a lot of problems with some file system types not getting erased.

I assume he was planning to run it from a Live cd...

07-26-2008, 12:17 PM	#1 (permalink)
dragonember Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: The voices in my head disagree... Posts: 163 OS: Windows XP: Home Edition SP2/Ububtu 8.04 My System	wiping hard drive just a quick question. I have a hard drive that I want to give to someone but I need to wipe it first. booting up in a linux distro and typing "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1M" will delete all of the data by setting all of the data to "0" on the hard drive right? __________________ Extrico subjectio quod verum ero evidens No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. -- Eleanor Roosevelt "it may be alright to be content with what you have; never with what you are."--B.C. Forbes

07-28-2008, 03:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
K-B Mod. Linux, Wrench Turner Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: NY Posts: 2,884 OS: Vista, Ubuntu My System	Re: wiping hard drive How sensitive is your data? I don't know if the above command will work or not, but I would just use a gparted Live CD and format the drive. Or if it's sensitive data that you're trying to erase, use Darik's Boot & Nuke http://www.dban.org/ __________________

07-28-2008, 06:43 PM	#3 (permalink)
dragonember Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: The voices in my head disagree... Posts: 163 OS: Windows XP: Home Edition SP2/Ububtu 8.04 My System	Re: wiping hard drive credit card information, personal data (web browser stuffs thats left around in the cache like user names and passwords), et cetera. stuff like that. __________________ Extrico subjectio quod verum ero evidens No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. -- Eleanor Roosevelt "it may be alright to be content with what you have; never with what you are."--B.C. Forbes