sanitizing disc

[Karl Auer]

On Tue, 2014-02-04 at 15:11 +0000, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 3 February 2014 20:50, Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:
> > Yes - as I said, you would only destroy your drive if you were very
> > concerned about keeping the data from other eyes.
> 
> This reflects upon my key point, which you seem to be missing.
> 
> People don't know there are easy free tools for data wiping, and so
> they are destroying HDs /instead/. This is the method of *preference*
> for the technically-naïve. It is rendering hundreds of thousands of
> working computers useless.

I'm not missing your point, I'm disagreeing. Or maybe having other
priorities. After this thread, I doubt anyone on this list will be
unaware that there are easy, free tools, and that's good.

  *** shred or DBAN will do the job if run correctly ***
  *** on a disk drive in good working order          ***

BUT: If people are *especially* concerned, then they can and should
destroy the drive. Destroying the drive removes all doubt about whether
the software was run, whether it was run with the correct parameters,
whether it ran correctly, whether it ran to completion, whether it had a
bug, whether the correct software was used, whether the correct drive
was wiped, whether the drive had a fault that prevented the software
from doing its job and so on. Destroying the drive is also a good option
when the drive cannot be connected up for software to be used - when the
drive is faulty, for example, or there is no suitable controller
available. It is also a good option when a *fast* solution is needed.

Recovery of data from a drive that someone has deliberately smashed (and
certainly from a drive that someone has shredded) is for all practical
purposes impossible. If it is possible at all it will require
specialised services, will cost a lot of money and take a lot of time.
These facts make destruction absolutely a suitable tool for "deleting"
data beyond reasonable hope of recovery.

These are the technical matters. Charity comes second.

> Even Linux techies are recommending stuff difficult, dangerous like
> SATA controller commands /in this thread/ rather than simple things
> like the `shred` command.

And you may recall that I a) was the first to recommend shred and b)
warned against the use of controller commands by amateurs.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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