On Tue, 2011-08-30 at 11:10 +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
On Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:05:11 -0500
Chris Adams <cmadams(a)hiwaay.net> wrote:
> Once upon a time, Alan Cox <alan(a)lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> said:
> > If you want to erase your drive, issue a secure erase command. It's as
> > simple as that.
> Is there a simple way to do that on Linux?
hdparm supports it.
hdparm --security-erase NULL (or the password) /dev/whatever
Note that it wipes the entire media not a partition...
Oh, if only I'd known two weeks ago. I tried "wipe /dev/sdb" on a 1TB
drive replaced under warranty and it took over a week to make one pass.
It wanted to do four passes (six for enhanced security), but I had to
give up and ship the drive.
Great tip, thanks.
--
Matthew Saltzman
Clemson University Mathematical Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu