Re: Shred forever?

Artnut wrote:

Hi all,

I heard that when we use the shred command to erase the entire harddisk it
erases for around 25 times. For example, if there is dust accumulated on a
table and I wipe off the dust with a single wiping that would be like
formatting the HD. But shred command is like running the duster over the
table for 25 times.
Is this true or exaggerated?
Also, is there any possibility of recovering the data erased with shred
command?

Thank you,

Arty
If it were me, and I wanted to really clean the disk.
I'd write a script and use dd to write random data over the same sector
a few times, then zero the sector and then move on to the next sector etc.
let it run for a day or whatever it takes to hit every sector on the disk and
no-one is gonna get any usable data off it.
But before you do anything about erasing a disk you need to consider what the
data on it is worth. Data recovery that costs $1000 to retrieve your email to
your wife about taking the car to the car wash on the way home from work isnt
economical, no ones going to spend the money. Retrieving a $20,000 set of
plans for a new furnace design that might make you millions is another story.

Thats for a personal disk...

If you're dealing with top secret classified govt stuff then the disk ought to
be destroyed - take it apart, and melt the platters & chips till they're a
liquid.
But if you really need to reuse the disk and its got govt classified stuff
then I'm sure the computer geniuses (heh.) in the govt have software or
hardware to do it properly.


.

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