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Proper HDD clear process? (poptalk.scrubbles.tech)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Usually my process is very... hammer and drill related - but I have a family member who is interested in taking my latest batch of hard drives after I upgraded.

What are the best (linux) tools for the process? I'd like to run some tests to make sure they're good first and also do a full zero out of any data. (Used to be a raid if that matters)

Edit: Thanks all, process is officially started, will probably run for quite a while. Appreciate the advice!

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

Just FYI: the often-cited NIST-800 standard no longer recommends/requires more than a single pass of a fixed pattern to clear magnetic media. See https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/nist.sp.800-88r1.pdf for the full text. In Appendix A "Guidelines for Media Sanitation" it states:

Overwrite media by using organizationally approved software and perform verification on the
overwritten data. The Clear pattern should be at least a single write pass with a fixed data value,
such as all zeros. Multiple write passes or more complex values may optionally be used.

This is the standard that pretty much birthed the "multiple passes" idea, but modern HDD technology has made that essentially unnecessary (unless you are combating nation-state-sponsored attackers, in which case you should be physically destroying anything anyway, preferably using some high-heat method).