dk-eradisk

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dk-eradisk — Generate data stream to erase disk / partition

Description

The program generates a data stream to erase a disk. Before retiring a disk or handing a disk over to another user one should remove all contents.
The output from dk-eradisk can be used as input for the dd program to safely clean a disk.

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Examples

Erase a disk

To erase a disk:

dk-eradisk -b 1M | dd of=/dev/sda bs=1M conv=fdatasync

Program	Option	Purpose
dk-eradisk		Create stream containing patterns to overwrite a disk.
	-b 1M	Block size is 1 Mibibyte (1048576 bytes).
dd		Apply data stream to disk.
	of=/dev/sda	Destination disk to overwrite.
	bs=1M	Block size is 1 Mibibyte.
	conv=fdatasync	Flush output buffer at end.

The "-b 1M" option for dk-eradisk must correspond to the "bs=1M" option for dd.

Erase a disk in multiple passes

To erase a disk in multiple passes (to deny restoring any contents):

for i in 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
do
  dk-eradisk -p $i -b 1M | dd of=/dev/sda bs=1M conv=fdatasync
done

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Manual

See the [dk-eradisk manual] for the full documentation of the program.

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