Tools to wipe a hard disk

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Deep Format of a Harddrive on a Linux System

Do you know tools (Linux live CDs, bootable DOS tools) to wipe hard drives?

Answer 1

Dban "Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction."

Answer 2

I'll use dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/*disk* bs=1024

ISTR that DoD recommends 7 passes, so you could do something like:

for n in {1...7}; do dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/*disk* bs=1024; done

Just be careful you get the correct disk or you could really shoot yourself in the foot. If I'm wiping a desktop or laptop I'll boot off a linux liveCD and run dd from that.

Answer 3

dd bs=1MB if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX

from a USB bootable key.

Answer 4

You can use shred which is installed by default in Ubuntu. So just get a live CD of that.

shred [OPTIONS] filename

or secure-delete (most likely not installed by default)

srm myfile.txt

Answer 5

DBAN boot disk

Answer 6

I like Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN):

http://www.dban.org

Very handy for secure drive wipes!

Answer 7

what's wrong with dd? dd is a tool that comes with (my belief) any linux live/install/repair image.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/diskname

isn't zeroing the disk clean/secure enough? just wondering