[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Zero filling my HDD before installation



Hi,

1) You might want to use "Reply to list", so that all readers can see
your answer.
2) Unneeded files are gone, as soon as you format the disk. Same for any
malware, aside from the fact that Windows malware won't run on Linux
anyway. The only thing possible would be people recovering date from
unused blocks, and that is easily mitigated by encrypting the disk if
you're concerned enough. At least with dm-crypt and luks _all_ sectors
are encrypted, no matter if used or not.

Regards,
/peter

Am 02.05.2016 um 17:50 schrieb Ralph Sanchez:
> Heqamilus --- Not an expert, but I've worked with Kali and Backtrack
> for quite a while from USB live boot and figure, if I didn't kill
> myself virtually while perm logged in as a root user, I should be okay
> switching to debian. Plus it's more secure, to me, and better as far
> as apt-get programs and what not, imho from research.
> 
> My laptop is two years old, an ASUS model with 280 gig HDD, 4 g ram,
> intel I forget processor lol
> 
> NO DVD OR CD DRIVE
> 
> and your saying it will allow me an option for encryption and random
> fill before, during or after install??
> 
> 
> Peter _ I have multiple reasons to want to sanitize and zero or random
> fill my hdd. Multiple copies of unneeded files, things I don't want
> people accessing if they would get through my sec, possibilities of
> malware/viruses/keyboard logging, etc that will continue to effect my
> system. I want a fresh start. And I know you can't be 100% sure,
> unless you initiate multiple passes and try to recover your disk using
> another system to check, still not 100% sure but better then blind
> trust.
> 
> On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 11:41 AM, Peter Ludikovsky <peter@ludikovsky.name> wrote:
>> Hello & welcome to Linux!
>>
>> To be honest, I haven't found a good reason to zero any media, unless I
>> was decommissioning it and/or selling it. When you create a new file
>> system on installation, any new information will overwrite the old one.
>> And as soon as it's created, the old file system won't be able to
>> interfere with the system anymore.
>>
>> Besides, with SSDs and some newer HDDs, you can't be sure that there
>> won't be something left over in a block that was marked defect and isn't
>> accessed anymore.
>>
>> Regards,
>> /peter
>>
>> Am 02.05.2016 um 17:00 schrieb CD Lexi:
>>> Hey everyone. I'm currently looking to switch to Debian from Windows. I
>>> used to love windows, but with every upgrade it seems I lose privacy,
>>> control and honestly functionality. Sure, there's a lot more I can, if
>>> that wasn't mitigated by what windows wants me to do at the time. I
>>> should have never even moved on to 10...constantly interrupting or
>>> flogging my system to ask me to upgrade in the middle of sensitive work
>>> should have been my tip off....I digress...
>>>
>>> My question is this: I know what Zero and Random fills do to a drive, I
>>> run them on every USB and Sd/MSD card I buy or retrieve, and everytime I
>>> repurpose them. But I've never done this to a HDD and my laptop is my
>>> only accessible PC aside from my Galaxy S6. I've backed up all my
>>> important documents to multiple cloud locations, so I'm not worried
>>> about losing user data. I'm just wandering, is it safe to Zero Fill an
>>> HDD before installing Debian from a USB ISO? I know I can boot to the
>>> ISO and Zero or Random Fill, or other sani methods from the USB Booted
>>> Debian, but will doing this to my hard drive stop me from being able to
>>> install from the USB to the HDD? I guess because I've never really
>>> messed with the BIOS in windows, aside from neccisity, I'm just worried
>>> if I zero fill and for some reason my laptop reboots before the new
>>> install, it won't boot from the USB anymore and thus make me have to
>>> find another computer from which to install DB. This is probably a
>>> rookie question, but better safe then sorry with my first full HDD
>>> sanitzation. Thanks!!!
>>>
>>

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Reply to: