Re: [Fedora 14] Linux hard disk shredder?

"David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:op.vtyxuwuya3w0dxdave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

I'm not jellybean, but I'll try to clarify.

Oh I do beg your pardon. My mistake Dave.


Using "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/MountPointOfFirstFileSystem/1.tmp"
will simply write a large file into the filesystem, hopefully
overwriting all data (some data may be left in the "catalog"
such as file names, etc.

The filesystem still exists, and is usable.

Using "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sd?1" will overwrite the entire
filesystem within that partition.

If you want to reuse that partition after this, you'll have to run
the appropriate mkfs command, to "format" the partition.

Using "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sd?" will overwrite everything
on the drive, including the partition table in the master boot
record.

If you want to reuse the drive after the above, you'll have to
recreate the partition table, the partitions, and run mkfs for
each partition.

Replacing /dev/urandom with /dev/zero will be much faster, as the
cpu doesn't have to try to generate a whole lot of psuedo random
bytes.

Adding "bs=1M" will use 1M blocks, instead of the default of 512
byte writes, again, to increase the speed.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

Oh this is *awesome* and goes right into my Linux Library of useful CLI
commands and programs. I have a favorite one for wget for grabbing every
image on a website. I use this homemade library a LOT and this will come
in very useful. I am not paranoid and prefer speed over absolute
deletion, the drive is for sure defective, will not be reused, and must
go back to Western Digital as an RMA exchange. WD has a very nice option
where they take your credit card number but do not bill you. In return,
you get the replacement drive up front, with shipping label if you ask
for it and pay the shipping, and get up to 30 days to transfer your data
and return the defective drive back in the shipping container that they
sent the replacement drive in. This drive is 3 years old, I never
registered it, but have access to the original invoice at newegg if I
need it, I didn't. This is the second time that Western Digital has sent
me a free, replacement hard drive this way. Sure beats spending the
original $109 all over again.

Oh that reminds me, I must print the shipping label and put it with the
return shipping carton.

I like this option the best:

Using "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sd?" will overwrite everything
on the drive, including the partition table in the master boot
record.

But want to use the quick method...

Replacing /dev/urandom with /dev/zero will be much faster, as the
cpu doesn't have to try to generate a whole lot of psuedo random
bytes.

Adding "bs=1M" will use 1M blocks, instead of the default of 512
byte writes, again, to increase the speed.

The drive is installed temporarily in a powered USB enclosure and shows
up as /dev/sdd? (1-4)

I am scared to death of making a mistake with dd, how would I combine
these commands to do what I want without wiping out my entire system or
important backup drives? Would this work?

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd bs=1M

I want to remove the partitions and just write zeros all over the drive.
Will the above command work if my drive is now /dev/sdd ? What is your
guess on completion time for a 1Tb drive? Don't kill yourself with this
answer as it is not very important, it is only a guess, I won't hold you
to it. I will run this command in a PuTTY screen, then close the term and
open it back up on the host computer so that I can monitor it.

I've grabbed a screencap of diskinfo on this hard drive that may be of
some help with this issue. The disk in question is the one that is
highlighted and displayed in Disk Utility.

http://home.comcast.net/~theohmster/image/WD_Disk.png

I am dying to do this right now, please tell me if the command line that
I have written above will work. Thank you, David.

--
~Ohmster | ohmster59 /a/t/ gmail dot com
.

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