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Possible Duplicate:
Securely erasing all data from a hard drive

Is it possible to securely wipe a hard drive with the method outlined here using dd and little else? I have an old PC and an Ubuntu server disc which I can run a shell from, but not much is included on that.

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Blacklight Shining
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  • @Nifle That question is about a Windows PC. There's not a trace of Windows left on this machine. I'm also asking specifically about the Gutmann method. – Blacklight Shining Sep 30 '12 at 17:02
  • Related from other Stack Exchanges (try a little bit of searching my friend): Ask Ubuntu: [How can I securely erase a USB hard drive?](http://askubuntu.com/questions/17640/how-can-i-securely-erase-a-usb-hard-drive), StackOverflow: [How do I erase my disk? (In a secure way) (Ubuntu)](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/85636/how-do-i-erase-my-disk-in-a-secure-way-ubuntu) and Security: [How can I reliably erase all information on a hard drive?](http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/5749/how-can-i-reliably-erase-all-information-on-a-hard-drive). – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Sep 30 '12 at 17:02
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    The answers in that question is valid for any OS (as the OS is irrelevant at that stage). – Nifle Sep 30 '12 at 17:05

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Not exactly an answer but in this day and age you are basically wasting your time trying to use the Gutmann method specifically.

Gutmann himself:

In the time since this paper was published, some people have treated the 35-pass overwrite technique described in it more as a kind of voodoo incantation to banish evil spirits than the result of a technical analysis of drive encoding techniques. As a result, they advocate applying the voodoo to PRML and EPRML drives even though it will have no more effect than a simple scrubbing with random data.

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
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    So I should just do one pass from `/dev/urandom`, and maybe one from `/dev/zero` and have done with it? – Blacklight Shining Sep 30 '12 at 17:06
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    `/dev/zero` is probably enough, but why not throw a random pass in there if you have time, as "Voodoo" can make you feel good sometimes, and that's important too. ;) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Sep 30 '12 at 17:08
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If you wish the delete all the data from drive and ensure it is all gone with no trace, if you are willing to simply burn another cd I suggest using DBAN as it will make the whole process a lot easier than using DD.

user88311
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