On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 9:54 AM, Yersinia <yersi...@myfairpoint.net> wrote: > However, if I was going to sell my hard drives, > I would definitely 35-Pass erase them first.
Well, if it makes you feel better and you've got the time for it, then why not? But my purely personal point of view is that it's a waste of time and electricity. Seriously, if anyone can post a link or other reference to some sort of proof (or even plausible allegation) that even a government agency has the resources & ability to extract data from a modern hard drive that has been ONE pass erased, I'd love to see it. My understanding is that the reason for the multi-pass erase scheme's is from fear of a paranoid hypothetical worst case scenario. (The IT equivalent of an urban legend?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_erasure#Number_of_overwrites_needed The biggest potential threat continues to be for the likely many folks out there who don't bother to write-erase *anything* when they dispose of an old hard drive. Just doing a one pass erase of a drive puts you way ahead in protection from identify theft or whatever else may lurking out there. (IMHO, of course.) -irrational john -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
