Wiping a drive - DBAN or encryption ??

[oygle]

Have an old Dell laptop, 10 years old, now rettired as it was giving so many problems. So, I usually use DBAN to wipe a drive. It takes a very long time. What about wiping the drive with GParted, then encrypt the whole drive. Won't that be more secure ??

[MAFoElffen]

More secure?

Data wiping standards have evolved over time. Even for DoD data wiping standards.

Magnetic storage standards used to be to fill/write all the blocks with a predetermined binary character, 3-7 times. Later it was found that once is sufficient, and prevents prematurely shortened lifespan, especially on later SSD type drives, where they are built much differently. On almost all SSD's, their firmware has a secure erase feature. Use sparingly.

On Linux, if HDD, why not just use dd to zero-fill the drive? Be careful to specify the 'correct' device.

[oygle]

On Linux, if HDD, why not just use dd to zero-fill the drive? Be careful to specify the 'correct' device.

Thanks, it is for a HDD and it is the only drive on that laptop, So this should do the trick

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M of=/dev/sda

[HermanAB]

If you wish to use the drive again with a Windows machine, then zero fill is best. Windows will then think that it is a shiny new never used drive. If you are a Linux nerd and like random numbers, use /dev/urandom in the above post.

[oygle]

If you wish to use the drive again with a Windows machine, then zero fill is best. Windows will then think that it is a shiny new never used drive.

Thanks, but the HDD, having 10 years of usage, it starting to fail.

If you are a Linux nerd and like random numbers, use /dev/urandom in the above post.

Okay, will do. It may take 8 to 10 hours, it's a 1Tb HDD, but that's okay.