From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NM2SQ-0000Wp-Qb for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:47:13 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id B5034E07D6; Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:46:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from eastrmmtao107.cox.net (eastrmmtao107.cox.net [68.230.240.59]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8133BE07D6 for ; Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:46:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from eastrmimpo01.cox.net ([68.1.16.119]) by eastrmmtao107.cox.net (InterMail vM.8.00.01.00 201-2244-105-20090324) with ESMTP id <20091219164633.PRKQ18765.eastrmmtao107.cox.net@eastrmimpo01.cox.net> for ; Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:46:33 -0500 Received: from [192.168.1.100] ([68.226.67.252]) by eastrmimpo01.cox.net with bizsmtp id K4mZ1d00M5Sa0uU024mZg4; Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:46:34 -0500 X-VR-Score: -110.00 X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.1 cv=OSH592LicKi2+aIpjjLcurvLcTlgRSPLpNzS8VagXAo= c=1 sm=1 a=6hKO7bgv8RoA:10 a=w8vW1BtY9Kn2S3BlLC7G9Q==:17 a=KK7XGLdlr5Poy1TjemEA:9 a=g55ADNE5DnJBOusj7gYsYAtE_0IA:4 a=w8vW1BtY9Kn2S3BlLC7G9Q==:117 X-CM-Score: 0.00 Message-ID: <4B2D0367.4000700@cox.net> Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:46:31 -0500 From: Marcus Wanner User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091204 Thunderbird/3.0 Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale References: <49bf44f10912161049v3768a3f8m60dddbae4b8777b@mail.gmail.com> <15719e8b0912161154o6f634c9bk6b1f9e3f9204ac20@mail.gmail.com> <49bf44f10912180908x6fa39920k7048c718a16a018b@mail.gmail.com> <49bf44f10912181505h7993994h4bf342380654dbf6@mail.gmail.com> <4B2C3187.7060701@cox.net> <49bf44f10912181758q15cb100k87bb42634d799cee@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <49bf44f10912181758q15cb100k87bb42634d799cee@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: b23ce529-6ee4-4009-9126-1f7a544bb265 X-Archives-Hash: 50b39f40244072df5cc2973765fe286a On 12/18/2009 8:58 PM, Grant wrote: >>> I used unetbootin to install Damn Small Linux on the 512MB bootable >>> USB key, and I'm booted into it. /dev/sda is my HD, and I'm running: >>> >>> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda >>> >>> The USB LED is blinking rapidly, but the HD LED is showing no >>> activity. Is there any way to tell if the HD is being wiped? >>> >> The hdd IS being wiped, if you have the right device (which you do, don't >> worry!). However, I would recommend running with if=/dev/urandom as that >> will overwrite it with random bits instead of just zero. However, since it's >> already being done with zeros and a hard drive would usually be sold with >> all bits set to zero, I think what you are doing will be fine. >> > I checked on it after a few hours and it said "No space left on > device" and the process had exited. I rebooted the system without the > key inserted and unfortunately it came back up to the normal HD so > nothing has been wiped. Any idea what I did wrong? > First of all, make sure that /dev/sda really is your hdd. You can do this in different ways, e.x. mounting the partition with your system on it and seeing if the files are there). Keep in mind that I believe the latest version of DSL still uses /dev/hda for IDE disks, so try that if it turns out that /dev/sdx isn't your disk. Marcus