Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two

Hack #99. Permanently Erase Hard Disks

Before discarding old hardware, make sure you're not accidentally giving away proprietary or personal data.

Most government agencies—certainly the ones with three-letter names—have extremely stringent requirements for wiping hard drives before they discard old computing equipment. These requirements usually also extend to any contractors who have done work for them. Some security requirements are so stringent that disks must be destroyed, rather than simply erased, before the hardware can be discarded. The quickest and easiest way to do this (and the mechanism preferred by more militant sysadmins) is to take the disks in question to the local shooting gallery (guns, that is) and put a few rounds through them. For information on how to totally disable a disk using this mechanism, check out a recent copy of Field & Stream. However, if you prefer to erase a disk using software, read on.

Tip

Lest you think that finding embarrassing data on hard drives is simply anecdotal, I have some good experience with this myself. I collect old workstations, and I once bought an ancient, still-working Tektronix Unix system that I managed to hack into since I didn't have the install media for uTek. Once in, I did a bit of exploring and found that the system had apparently last been used as a node in a Bondage and Domination BBS. Now that was some interesting (and scary) mail!

Using shred to Wipe Hard Drives

"Permanently Delete Files" [Hack #98] introduced the ...