This topic had been discussed at great length in a previous thread - unclassified disk sanitizers; to sum it up, no a simple format will not ensure that data cannot be recovered. What is needed is a tool that will overwrite every physical sector of a drive with data, from the very start to the very, very end. 'dd' will do the job just fine. However, with any tool that you use, be careful of BIOS translation errors and verify that the last sector of the drive had been wiped using a disk editor, preferably with a verification system seperate from the one used to do the wipe.
However, since the original person who asked the question works for government, depending on the classification of the data he wishes to destroy, this may or may not be adequate enough. Drives that house data classified as Top Secret are generally destroyed in house. _________________________________________ John Daniele Technical Security & Intelligence Toronto, ON Voice: (416) 605-2041 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.tsintel.com On Wed, 27 Mar 2002, Bassam ALHUSSEIN wrote: > I am not sure but I thought that a format then fdisk would do the job > ....wouldn't it ??? > correct me guys ..plz > > Bisso > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dan Williamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 12:14 AM > Subject: Disk Wiping Utilities > > > > > > > > I am looking for a good utility to erase all hard drives > > in a machine to a DOD standard. I would prefer a > > FREE utility as this is a government agency and I try > > to keep costs down. > > > > I have read that Norton Wipeinfo, BCWipe and > > several other programs wipe only the known > > partitions. I need a tool that will wipe EVERYTHING ! > > > > TIA > > Dan > > > > > > >
