Re: Wiping hard drives
--- On Tue, 9/13/11, yudi v <yudi.tux@gmail.com> wrote:
> I will be wiping partitions on my hard drive before sending it back to
> the manufacturer for replacement.
>
> I usually prefer dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX# for the unencrypted
> partitions and just over write the first few sectors on the LUKS
> partition to destroy the header file.
>
> I just want to hear some opinions as to what precautions you take before
> parting with hard drives. I would be very interested to hear from SSD
> owners.
I would do: dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX (Note there is no partition number.)
This would wipe out everything on the drive, not only data, but the boot sector, MBR, Partition Table, etc. It doesn't mean some data couldn't be recovered, if you had the right tools and know how, but as the drive is going back to the manufacturer, I wouldn't be concerned. They will just salvage what hardware they can and destroy (or recycle) the rest.
B
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