---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Lee Winter <lee.j.i.winter@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: Inquiry:How to totally wipe out the entire hard drive
To: "Andrew M.A. Cater" <
amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk>
On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 6:39 AM, Andrew M.A. Cater
<amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Better, by far, is to get hold of a copy of DBAN [floppy image/CD image
or even Windows .exe] Runs in memory, uses a Linux kernel to bootstrap a
disk wipe program offering various options.] Using this, you can also
securely delete hard drives before disposing of a machine / securely
remove any pre-existing contents on any drives in a machine you acquire.
Be careful with DBAN. It is good, but it has weaknesses. Among other things, it will believe the drive electronics even if the data provided is obviously wrong. For example, if the drive electronics tells DBAN that your 100GB disk is really a 100MB disk DBAN will happily clean the first 100 MB and report success.
I do professional drive cleaning (e.g., 100-1000 drive batches) and DBAN is a good tool. But it is far from perfect. So use it carefully.
Lee Winter
NP Engineering
Nashua, New Hampshire