Steve Thompson <smt at ...> writes: > > On Thu, 26 Sep 2013, Bret Taylor wrote: > > > A fairly simple solution is > > dd if=/dev/zero (or urandom) of=/dev/(device) > > I usually hit the disk with a hammer. Satisfying > > -s > I run badblocks in write mode on the drive. badblbocks does four passes (all zeroes, alternating ones and zeroes both ways and all ones). This is sufficient to keep all but a high-end forensics lab from getting anything useful off of the disk and even such a lab will have a hard time. For the OP's question, this lets him know that the disk is both clean and is still good to use. For me, if badblocks says the disk is good, it goes on the shelf as a spare until it is hopelessly obsolete. Otherwise, the disk gets used for target practice. Also, very satisfying. Cheers, Dave