How to make sure it's really gone?

[Dale Farnsworth]

> Read the -w manpage warnings. and make sure it wipes
> the whole drive including the block zero. Don't stop
> it till you are sure it has enogh runs thru the drive.
> Because if you don't, knoppix still can find the
> harddrive on boot up. I have done two..using the base
> for the hd such as hda, not hda1... hda1 ignores the
> very first block on the drive and the drive MIGHT be
> recognized as a hard drive, but hda wipe even the part
> that says 'hey, I am a hard drive'! 

No.  The information about the type of drive and its size
is kept elsewhere.  No matter how many times you scribble
on block zero, the drive will still identify itself as a
hard drive with a particular size.  Block zero does contain
the partition info and what some call the MBR (master boot
record).  You can repartition with fdisk or equivalent and
you can put in a new MBR with lilo or another boot loader.

-Dale