On Jan 11, 2008 4:34 PM, Alan Cox <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > most of the machines I encounter (and with both SATA and IDE drives), > > except for the Dell D610 and HP 7700 (small desktop pc). The models I > > just mentioned run the shred really slow, which I believe is due to > > the DMA problem I was having (outlined in my previous emails). Any > > thoughts? > > If your shred program is relying on DMA then you are using the wrong tool > for the job. The correct way to erase a disk is to send it a security > erase command. Rewriting over the data may not do what is wanted. Alan, I was talking to Kristin this morning about doing that. I was concerned that there is not anybody certifying that each individual disk drive model / firmware release is properly implementing the Security Erase function. Are you aware of testing body, etc. that publishes a white-list of drives that are known to have a proper implementation of Security Erase? Lacking something like that and realizing how rarely it is used, I'm not sure it should be trusted. Performing both a Security Erase and calling shred on the drive might be the ultimate one-two punch. Greg -- Greg Freemyer Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer First 99 Days Litigation White Paper - http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
