[ubuntu-uk] Shredding HDD data

[Dan Fish]

On Wed, 2010-08-11 at 11:12 +0100, Bill Cumming wrote:
> Best way is probavly just to use the "dd" command:
> If you run off of a live CD then just point "dd" to the drive instead
> of a file.
> 
> Example: sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda 
> 
> That will overwrite the entire drive that's on /dev/sda with random
> data destroying any Filesystem on that drive.
> 
> You should at least do multiple alternating runs of
> "/dev/zero" (quick) and "/dev/urandom" (slow)
> 
> 
> But it's going to be *VERY* slow but worth it to be secure.
> 
> That's just my way of shredding a drive, others will have other ideas
> ^_^
> 
> 
> On 11 August 2010 11:05, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
>         
>         On 11 August 2010 11:01, Byte Soup <bytesoup at gmail.com> wrote:
>         > One of my family wants to shred some HDDs before discarding
>         them, or giving
>         > them away on freecycle. What application would you all
>         recommend to do this?
>         > I have used "shred" to remove files, but I dont think it can
>         do an entire
>         > disc (i.e. some previously deleted files)
>         >
>         
>         
>         DBAN - Darik's Boot and Nuke.
>         
>         http://www.dban.org/
>         
>         Just be sure you only have the disk you want to fry plugged in
>         when
>         you run it, and not a disk containing your lovingly curated
>         collection
>         of pony pictures.
>         
>         Cheers,
>         Al.
>         
>         --
>         ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
>         https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
>         https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Regards
> 
> Bill Cumming
> 
> Twitter: @s0l_uk
> Skype: s0litaire
> eMail: bill at s0l.co.uk

My only beef with dd is the lack of feedback - nothing appears to be
happening. There's a replacement in the repos called dcfldd. Does a
similar thing and accepts similar arguments but gives back a progress
bar of sorts.

Regards
Dan