[jcynix]

Erasing a hard disc (i.e. spinning rust, not solid state ones) before retiring it is a proper use case. Linux/Unix example:

  dd if=/dev/urandom bs=8mb of=/dev/sda

Note: this is a trivial example, which could be optimized in various ways, e.g. by generating one 8mb file of randomness and reusing that, especially if your urandom is slow.

[ericbarrett]

Data recovery on overwritten hard drives haven't been feasible since the 90s. A zero-wipe is sufficient!

2008 paper [PDF]: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Craig-Wright-6/publicat...

[wruza]

Thanks, I always thought that these 7-pass DoD methods must be an insane overkill.