Re: how to sweep hard disk of confidential data
John Summerfield <debian@ComputerDatasafe.com.au> said on Mon, 19 Jul 2004 05:27:58 +0800:
> H. S. wrote:
> > Any suggestions? Or any alternate methods? Then there is also the
> > option of using a Windows programs to do this. But I am familiar with
> > those.
>
> Unscientifically proven: a destructive badblocks test. The next owner
> will be impressed that you so thoroughly tested the drive for him:-)
Now, there's a thought.
You better destroy that drive afterall. If the drive had any bad
blocks, and these were transparently remapped (as they do), then you
can't tell that there have been remapping events (maybe SMART will
tell you...). When you run wipe across /dev/hda, the drive will wipe
all the current data, ignoring the blocks that were remapped onto
another part of the drive.
So Mallory comes along, buys the computer, and uses a low level tool
to look at all the sectors that were remapped. Then he finds in one of
those sectors that were remapped, the evidence of corruption that Bush
was trying to hide :)
--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound
they make as they go past" - DNA
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