[vox] Wipe data

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bill Broadley (bill at broadley.org):

> On 02/20/2015 11:06 PM, Rick Moen wrote:
> >> I'd recommend a single overwrite with dd, or just to a ATA Secure Erase.
> > 
> > Not tested, but here are some tips about using ATA Secure Erase using a
> > gratis utility for DOS (which means you can presumably use it from a
> > FreeDOS image):
> > http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-really-erase-a-hard-drive/
> 
> Or just from linux.

I'm not accustomed to using ATA drives (except on laptops), so I've not
until this evening had occasion to look up how to do ATA Secure Erase on
anything at all.  That article covered a 'freeware' [sic] utility for
DOS, but didn't mention real OSes.

Anyway, it appears that hdparm will do it.
https://tinyapps.org/docs/wipe_drives_hdparm.html

[...]
 
> But for anything less (from wiki)

Quoted 'wiki' text appears to be from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_erasure, for any who were curious.

> Single wipe is quite good, especially since drives have gotten quite a
> bit denser since 2001.

Honestly, the main reason I tend to run SCSI disks through the HBA's
low-level formatting utility is to ensure that the timing tracks are
freshly made and completely appropriate to the HBA.  Which remains an
advantage over ATA.  I usually don't care _that_ much about deterring
anyone willing to spend $10k from recovering a few blocks here or there.

(SATA and SAS are so very nearly the same thing, these days, that if I
were spending my own money for server hard drives, I'd more than likely
not bother with SAS any more.  But it's usually Other People's Cash.)

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