[aklug] Re: HD wipe (distro) recommendation

Forgot to mention: newer-ish SATA drives support a low-level "security
erase" feature that does its best to wipe even sectors marked as bad
(which DBAN won't):

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase

Royce

On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 11:35 PM, Royce Williams <royce@tycho.org> wrote:
> It's non-trivial for the non-techie to truly wipe it all ... but DBAN
> will probably be good enough to get rid of any personal info.
>
> Be aware that DBAN doesn't necessarily nuke the HPA (Host Protected
> Area) or the DCO (Device Configuration Overlay):
>
> http://www.dban.org/node/35
>
> Normally, the HPA would be used by the manufacturer for a recovery
> partition, but since malware can also hide there, it's better to make
> sure that it's all gone.
>
> Some good Linux info in the Wikipedia articles:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_configuration_overlay
>
> You can use a DOS USB key to run MHDD, which will let you toggle off
> the HPA so that DBAN will wipe it.
>
> Royce
>
> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 8:51 PM, Farrin Reid <blakmatrix@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Good Ol' DBAN
>>
>> Farrin A. Reid
>> Software Engineer
>> Phone: (907)460-6713
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/farrinreid
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 9:39 PM, Chris Jones <chris@christopherjones.us>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I'd recommend looking into Darik's Boot and Nuke:
>>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/.
>>>
>>> Chris
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Scott A. Johnson
>>> <scott.a.johnson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Howdy,
>>>>
>>>> A relative is selling his laptop and wants to wipe everything on the
>>>> HD before he does. I don't live by him or else I'd do it myself. Is
>>>> there a distro that is very friendly (for non-techies) that I could
>>>> load onto a memory stick, mail the USB drive to him, and he could
>>>> easily use to wipe his system?

-- 
Royce Williams
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.