Re: OT: Can Reformatting A Hard Drive To ext3 Destroy All the Data On It?

[Mike McCarty]

Robert L Cochran wrote:
> I have a hard drive that I need to destroy the data on. What is the most 
> dependable way to do this? Can reformatting the drive as ext3 or ext4 or 
> some other filesystem effectively destroy the existing data?
>
> Is there free software that can write zeroes or some form of nonsense to 
> every storage location?

Overwriting the disc, even several times, is not enough to guarantee
that the data _cannot_ be recovered. If you truly need to make the
data unrecoverable, then a hammer is all that's needed. To be truly
sure, open the case (also requires a screwdriver or nutdriver),
and shatter each disc separately. They are usually ceramic these
days, I think. Anyway, physical destruction is the only real guarantee.

Mike