[olug] [OT] IBM Authorized service center in Lincoln...

[Obi-Wan]

> If you are not the DoD, State Dept. NSA, CIA, FBI or some other Fed alphabet soup agency that deals in national secrets, maybe you should take a powder break.

Or health care.  HIPPA is pretty anal about data leaks.  So is SOX for
publically traded companies.  The hospital where I used to work typically
just took all their old drives down to the maintenance shop and had them
put a drill press through them in a few spots.  The few drives that I
saved from that fate to bring home got a full-on milspec data cleansing.

> What the heck does any Joe Six-pack have on their personal hdd that could be that interesting.

Probably true, but doing a proper wipe on a functional drive is so easy
to do, why would you take the chance?  Identity theft will make your
life hell.

> OK, do 5 passes of /dev/zero, 5 passes of 0xFF, (Why is there no /dev/twohundredfiftyfive?) and then a few /dev/random.

Passes of zero & FF don't do you much good, because adding a constant
level across the entire drive will still allow the residual charge
from your non-constant data to show through.  Random (or at least
unknown) data is the only thing worth wiping with, if you really care
enough to be doing this at all.

-- 
Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth                             obiwan at jedi.com
   The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
     Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
       promise that You will pull me through.  -- Rich Mullins