On 2010-03-06 22:10, Mark wrote:
>On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 7:11 PM, Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net <mailto:ron.l.johnson@cox.net>> wrote:[snip] >We're allowed to question *spurious* justifications. If you'd have said "for privacy concerns" instead of fear of "ghost/residual files", the response would have been markedly different. >Interesting, so what is the difference in terms? Wouldn't the privacy concerns be from residual files?
Yes, but... residual *files* just DO NOT EXIST ANYMORE after a mkfs.What *can* exist, maybe, are residual *fragments* (blocks or sectors, since the original inodes and index structures were wiped away by the mkfs) which a clever forensic technician could maybe piece back together,
So, zeroing out the partition is a reasonable operation for a /home or /data partition (where you'd keep sensitive data), but not for something as mundane as an OS-only / partition.
BTW, I like having a separate /data (or whatever you all it) partition, and recommend that you also having a separate /home.
-- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA "If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms." Mike Ditka