Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Joshua Murphy <poisonbl@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:10:17
Message-Id: c30988c30912161656r4709fcb9l5aeaa2d76010b2c0@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale by Dale
1 On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 6:36 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
2 > Mick wrote:
3 >>
4 >> On Wednesday 16 December 2009 18:49:07 Grant wrote:
5 >>
6 >>>
7 >>> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
8 >>> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
9 >>> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
10 >>> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
11 >>> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
12 >>> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
13 >>> however that works.
14 >>>
15 >>
16 >> First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:
17 >>
18 >> # shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition
19 >>
20 >> Then I would delete old partitions, create new partitions and format them
21 >> as required.  If you're really paranoid about your data (which from what
22 >> you're telling me you're not) you can also use dd to randomly overwrite
23 >> partition tables, but I would probably not bother.
24 >>
25 >> Now, there may be more modern tools to do all this with a single button,
26 >> but I haven't looked into it in any detail.
27 >>
28 >> HTH.
29 >>
30 >
31 > Also note that shred, at least the last I read, doesn't work to well on some
32 > file systems.  I know this used to be true for reiserfs and some other
33 > journalized file systems.
34 >
35 > I'm thinking the dd thing may be the best way here.  I don't think it cares
36 > about file systems when it does its thing.
37 >
38 > Dale
39 >
40 > :-)  :-)
41 >
42
43 That is, of course, when shredding individual files, where the final
44 location and initial locations for them may not wind up being the same
45 place on disk. When 'shredding' a whole partition, though, the file
46 system itself ceases to matter, as it in itself is being overwritten
47 as well as all the data it provides a means of indexing for.
48
49 Incidentally, I believe the oft referenced here DBAN uses shred
50 internally, last I looked.
51
52 --
53 Poison [BLX]
54 Joshua M. Murphy

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com>