full-disclosure - Erasing a hard disk easily

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Message-ID: <20040712232455.GB22627@northernsecurity.net>
From: thomas at northernsecurity.net (Thomas Sjögren)
Subject: Erasing a hard disk easily

On Mon, Jul 12, 2004 at 11:23:24PM +0200, Maarten wrote:
> So, if you want to erase the data but keep the drives operational too, you 
> have but one means left: by plain old formatting.  Depending on the level of 
> security you want, you can opt for:
> 
> * DOS/Windows format (beware: this does not erase ANY data at all !!)
> * Low-level format / wipe (with special tools, level depends on the tool used) 
> * Linux dd overwriting using /dev/zero (fairly good if used multiple times)
> * Linux dd overwriting using random data (excellent if used multiple times)
> * Department-of-defense level (dd as above but lots more times (like 10+))

0. Manuallty wipe (shred, wipe, PGPs secure deletion utility, ...) files that
   you know contains info you dont want to share.
1. Remove all partitions (fdisk on a floppy).
2. Create a new partition covering the whole disk and reformat it.
3. Use Autoclave[1] or write your own, similar but updated, tool.

[1] http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/

/Thomas
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== thomas@...thernsecurity.net | thomas@...linux.org
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