Writing over a drive using /dev/zero

[Chris F.A. Johnson]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010, Walter Dnes wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 11:55:16AM -0500, Daniel Wayne Armstrong wrote
>
>> Any thoughts? Thanks!
>
>  The only thing I have to add is that if you're trying to securely wipe
> a drive, you should use /dev/urandom instead of /dev/zero.  And if CSIS
> or CIA really want the data, they might still be able to retreive most
> of it.  If you really, really want to guarantee the data won't be
> retreived, you have to take out the platters and disolve them in a vat
> of acid.  If the data on the disk isn't *THAT* sensitive, 3 or 4 passes
> with /dev/urandom will usually do the trick.

    Then write a new, plausible file structure on to the drive so that
    it doesn't look as if it has been wiped and there might be
    something to recover.

-- 
    Chris F.A. Johnson, <http://cfajohnson.com>
    Author:
    Pro Bash Programming: Scripting the GNU/Linux Shell (2009, Apress)
    Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
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