Re: [gentoo-user] Securely deletion of an HDD

[Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com>]

Am 13.07.2015 um 03:50 schrieb Thomas Mueller:
> All that has been said on this thread supposes that the hard drive is still readable and writable.
>
> But the original post stated this was a failed drive.
>
> Then you might not be able to dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx .. or whatever else.
>
> You would be stopped by bad sectors.
>
> Or a hard drive might not be accessible at all through the computer interface.
>
> I heard something that sounded like a modem dialing, but had no such modem.  
>
> Going around with my eyes and ears led me to determine that it was a hard drive whining in an external eSATA enclosure, no longer recognized or accessible from the computer.
>
> That was a Western Digital Green 3 TB hard drive that replaced, under warranty, a WD Green 3 TB hard drive that developed bad sectors.
>
> Fortunately I had no confidential data on that hard drive.
>
> So everything in this thread says nothing about if the hard drive failed due to a mechanical problem.
>
> Then the data could not be overwritten by ordinary means, but could still be read by techniques such as used by Drive Savers.

in case of mechanical failure: open case, rub platters on the carpet. Done.