Re: [gentoo-user] Good command for wiping a hard drive?

[Mark Shields]

Deleting and recreating new, different partitions isn't enough, as the raw data is still there.  I would use /dev/urandom combined /bin/dd.  Never done this before, but *should* work.  Boot from the gentoo livecd (or some other livecd that provides a full working linux environment), type dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda conv=notrunc .  Run that about 10 times (you do want it securely erased right?) or however many times you feel is necessary.  Use dlcfdd instead of dd if you can, as with an extra CLI option (sizeprobe=of) you can get a progress bar.

On 9/30/05, Mark Knecht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Hi,
   Sold my laptop on Ebay. It was dual boot Gentoo/XP Pro and had
financial data on it. I'd like to pretty securely wipe the drive
before shipping. I've already deleted all 10 partitions and written
new partitions on which are different sizes and different file
systems. What simple command can Ido to write data to the whole drive?

   After doing this I will be deleting all partitions again and
running the XP reinstall disk from Compaq so that the new buyer gets a
machine more or less ready for him to work. (I offered to set him up
with Gentoo but he didn't byte.) ;-)

Cheers,
Mark

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