(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Perhaps this is already possible in puppy but if it is I do not know how.

If you want to destroy all data on a disk before you sell it, a commonly used tool in Windows is killdisk, which performa a low level format of the disk. I wonder how to do that in puppy - Gparted can only perform a high level format (which does not destroy the data), right?

Is fdformat the right command? Or is that only for floppies (not harddisks)?

I guess that the thing I want is Darek's Boot and Nuke (DBAN,

http://garr.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ ... 6_i586.iso


...but then as puppy application. Now it is a separate bootable iso, perhaps/hopefully I can add it to the bootmenu with grub4dos, but it would be easier if DBAn can be added to puppy (just like Gparted).

I've used Puppy to do what you want, but it's been a few years ago and I don't remember now how I did it. I think there is either a script I ran or a .pet I downloaded which did the job. Creative use of the forum's search feature might turn up something.

Dromeno wrote: If you want to destroy all data on a disk before you sell it, a commonly used tool in Windows is killdisk, which performa a low level format of the disk.

Easiest tool for this purpose is "dd" utility: (Also you can use larger block size: bs=1M)
Advanced but very dangerous tool is "hdparm". HDDs have security system which can be used for erasing all sectors of drive. This method is fastest because no i/o operations between drive and host: A drive erases itself.
1) Set a master password - HDD remembers It. Master password does not lock
drive but needed for future operations.
2) Set a "maximum mode" user password (Can be same as master) - HDD locks itself.
After these operations we can unlock a drive using user or master password.
When we unlock with user password, HDD unlocks itself and allows to read
or write data.
When we unlock with master password, It erases itself before unlocking.
Learn "hdparm --security-help" output and use It at your own risk

I think it was that dd command I used, or something a lot like it. I'll have to remember hdparm, next time I need to get rid of a hard disk.