how to sweep hard disk of confidential data

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Newsgroups:  gmane.linux.debian.user
Date:        Sun, 18 Jul 2004 23:25:47 +0100

On Sunday 18 July 2004 11:52 am, Frank Gevaerts wrote:

> > I am in a situation where a computer is to be given away and prior to
> > that it's hard disk needs to *thoroughly* cleaned (data consists of
> > financial information, reports, class exams, competition exams, etc).
>
> Try http://dban.sourceforge.net/[]

I second this suggestion. DBAN (short for Darik's Boot n' Nuke will wipe your hard disk to the point where only the NSA has any hope of recovering data.

Doug Holland

how to sweep hard disk of confidential data

> The second method that I have read is to delete everything from the disk
> and then write a large file (how to get his? random data?) repeatedly and
> fill the disk. Then remove these files with 'wipe'.

Too complex. Just use Wipe on /dev/hda (or just on the partitions containing sensitive data).

John Hasler

how to sweep hard disk of confidential data

> that it's hard disk needs to *thoroughly* cleaned (data consists of

Wipe was designed for this. It repeatedly writes certain patterns and random data to your disk, so that a recovery of the original data is almost (?) impossible. Versions prior to 0.20 have problems with disks larger than 4GB, so be sure to use a recent version.

Philipp Weis

how to sweep hard disk of confidential data

> Any suggestions? Or any alternate methods? Then there is also the option
> of using a Windows programs to do this. But I am familiar with those.

If you are interested in the subject you should read the current thread on the full-disclosure list about this topic. It is quite informative!

Here's the archived version for you perusal. I highly recommend you read it.

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/fulldisc/full-disclosure/23767

Grx HdV