Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com>]

Joshua Murphy wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 6:36 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Mick wrote:
>>     
>>> On Wednesday 16 December 2009 18:49:07 Grant wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
>>>> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
>>>> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
>>>> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
>>>> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
>>>> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
>>>> however that works.
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:
>>>
>>> # shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition
>>>
>>> Then I would delete old partitions, create new partitions and format them
>>> as required.  If you're really paranoid about your data (which from what
>>> you're telling me you're not) you can also use dd to randomly overwrite
>>> partition tables, but I would probably not bother.
>>>
>>> Now, there may be more modern tools to do all this with a single button,
>>> but I haven't looked into it in any detail.
>>>
>>> HTH.
>>>
>>>       
>> Also note that shred, at least the last I read, doesn't work to well on some
>> file systems.  I know this used to be true for reiserfs and some other
>> journalized file systems.
>>
>> I'm thinking the dd thing may be the best way here.  I don't think it cares
>> about file systems when it does its thing.
>>
>> Dale
>>
>> :-)  :-)
>>
>>     
>
> That is, of course, when shredding individual files, where the final
> location and initial locations for them may not wind up being the same
> place on disk. When 'shredding' a whole partition, though, the file
> system itself ceases to matter, as it in itself is being overwritten
> as well as all the data it provides a means of indexing for.
>
> Incidentally, I believe the oft referenced here DBAN uses shred
> internally, last I looked.
>
>   

That makes sense.  So, the OP shouldn't mount the drives but shred the 
disk itself?

Dale

:-)  :-)