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On Thu, 4 Mar 2021, David Bell wrote:
I have a few HDDs to wipe prior to replacing them with SSDs. Can anyone please recommend a good freebie wiping programme that they have used.
I find a big log splitter works wonders.The issue with dban, shred, etc. is that they can't normally access any re-allocated sectors - ones the disk itself might have swapped out for faulty ones it detected - is that a problem? Only you know the answer to that... Also - they do multiple passes - the days when that was a thing are long gone - a single pass of
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdXis all you need to wipe all but the reallocated sectors (check with smartctl -a)
Some drive do have a factory erase/reset, but it's a PITA to go through.Then there's the issue of recycling - for yourself as backups, the issue them is long term reliability and (more importantly?) power consumption.
Or selling them on - then I'd just zero them unless they had reallocated sectors.
But the axe/log splitter is just far too easy and what I've used for a long time now.
Here are some I did earlier... https://twitter.com/drogon/status/1253628310418083841/photo/1 Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dcglug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq