Re: (OT) Multiple hard drive wipe utilities question...




"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:469f712f$0$16605$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Actually, there is a better way to do this that is fully DOD approved.

For the past several years, almost all IDE hard drives have had an INTERNAL TO THE DRIVE "wipe the entire drive" command...

For those that are interested in reading about the subject, there are
some documents up at the advocate's/developer's page:

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/Hughes/SecureErase.html

I would urge people to read the materials very carefully.

Having the drive itself perform the wiping would surely seem to have
clear advantages (the ability to wipe areas which aren't accessible to
host software and the ability to write in the optimal way for wiping).
Oddly, the (rather strong) push seems to be for fixed/fast solutions
rather than flexible solutions which would appeal to a wider range
of users. If the DoD or for that matter Joe User demands 3 passes
or 7 or 42... why fight it? How hard could it be to make the cmd
accept some params?

.



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