>> Unless that IT dept was bright enough to do low level formats. > I would dearly love to do computer forensics against someone stupid > enough to think that a low level format actually erased any > significant data ...
In my experience, it does. It is, however, often confused with merely rebuilding the filesystem, which is _not_ a low level format and does _not_ destroy any significant amount of data (in most implementations). A real low level format involves laying down completely new timing tracks and such, and will destroy all data unless you're willing to open the drive in a cleanroom and look at residual magnetization patterns and the like. It's not always possible; for example, I don't recall seeing any ATA command for it. SCSI has the FORMAT UNIT command, which, if done right, is a real reformat - I don't know whether modern drives actually do a reformat or not. (On the few occasions when I've wanted a real reformat of a SCSI drive, FORMAT UNIT has, as far as I can tell, done it.) /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML [email protected] / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
