Tagged Questions

2
votes
2answers
149 views

Difference between DBAN and dd command to securely wipe a HDD

I have read about dd and see that it can be used to securely wipe a HDD. But there is also a program called DBAN to wipe the HDD as well. I know that using a live gnu-linux ISO I can wipe my HDD by ...
11
votes
4answers
6k views

Why is my /dev/random so slow when using dd?

I am trying to semi-securely erase a bunch of hard drives. The following is working at 20-50Mb/s dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda But dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda seems not to work. Also when I ...
2
votes
0answers
244 views

Why does my disk ignore erase and write commands to some sectors?

I did an ATA secure erase on an SSD (with SystemRescueCD and hdparm). Some parts of the disk are reset to zero, but some parts are not. In particular, the MBR and the boot sector of a Windows Vista ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views

How to erase a hard drive with unwritable sectors?

So I have a hard drive that is failing. I want to erase the data on it before sending it for replacement. I'm trying to use dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdXX, but it stops at the first write error. How can ...