Secure format?
Aqeel Zafar at
Selling an old laptop, how can I format the hard drive in linux so that data isn't recoverable?
It has windows installed on it, would converting the drive to ext4 and then back to fat32/ntfs good enough?
Found https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Securely_wipe_disk, should've known Arch Wiki has everything! :)
Reformatting will not make data unrecoverable at all because mkfs only rewrites the FS table (very beginning of the partition).
Even dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda will not make data completely unrecoverable.
Try dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda
Even dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda will not make data completely unrecoverable.
Try dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda
I usually use DBAN, followed by a sledgehammer.
Even after wiping the drive, I'm never quite sure, so I destroy it as much as possible.
Even after wiping the drive, I'm never quite sure, so I destroy it as much as possible.