Re: Using Dban

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Author: Stephen M
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: Using Dban
There is a problem using dban. When I started it up it never gave me
options on what to scan. Now my two SATA drives along with my USB drive
are not working. I need help to understand what is going on please.

On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 11:32 AM, Stephen Partington <>
wrote:
>
> Todd thanks. I am filing this away for my own use later.
>
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 11:26 AM, Todd Millecam <> wrote:
>>
>> Oh, if it's SSD drives, don't do it this way, this is solely for
>> plattered drives. If you are using an SSD, then you just need to issue a
>> secure command to the drive and tell it to wipe itself--which you can do
>> through hdparm:
>>
>> $~ hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass PasSWorD /dev/sda #sets up security on the drive
>>
>> $~ hdparm --user-master u --security-erase PasSWorD /dev/sda # the point of no return delete everything on your SSD drive command
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Todd Millecam <> wrote:
>>>
>>> There's a lot of ways to do it, but they all do the same thing.
>>> In bash:
>>> $~ shred -zn10 /dev/sda
>>>
>>> That'll securely erase everything on block device /dev/sda--give it a
>>> while to run as it's writing random numbers across the entire drive and
>>> then finishing by writing nothing but 0s on it. This makes all data on the
>>> device non-recoverable.
>>>
>>> You need to overwrite the data anywhere from 4 - 15 times before it's
>>> clean and nothing can be recovered from it.
>>>
>>> That's essentially all dban/wipe is doing. If you want to get even more
>>> primitive, then you can use dd (garunteed to be on all *nix systems)
>>> $~ dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda && dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
>>>
>>> That's the same as doing one pass, but if shred is there (and it usually
>>> is) then it'll do all 10 passes for you. I guess you could just throw that
>>> dd command in a simple loop:
>>> $~ for i in `seq 10` ; do dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda && dd
>>> if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda ; done
>>>
>>>
>>> Dban or wipe will do all this for you, but you can do it yourself.
>>> (Note, don't do it on the currently-running OS drive, because it'll
>>> eventually erase glibc.so being used to do the overwrite. If you want to
>>> do it on multiple drives, just plug them all into the same computer, and
>>> run shred on all of them from a live-cd of your chosing)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 10:27 AM, Stephen M <>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> HI,
>>>>
>>>> I have a couple drives that I want to wipe and give them to the Loco
>>>> group. I have never done a wipe on my own computer. I want to see whats
>>>> the best method. I know there is dban, wipe, and many other solutions. I
>>>> will be using a SATA to USB adapter so I don't have to open my computers
>>>>
>>>> What I need to know is there a way to use that device and still work on
>>>> my computer. Or do I have to let my computer run dban or whatever to wipe
>>>> the drive.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks all.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Stephen Melheim
>>>> 602-400-7707
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Todd Millecam
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Todd Millecam
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
>
> Stephen
>
>
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--
Stephen Melheim
602-400-7707

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