On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 12:57 PM, D G Teed <donald.t...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Lee Winter <lee.j.i.win...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> >> On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 10:27 AM, Aaron Toponce <aaron.topo...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> > On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 08:59:14AM +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote: >> >> If you want to be safe, you need to overwrite the data several times, >> > >> > Have anything to back that up? If you're using drives that used the old >> > MFM >> > or RLL encoding schemes, and had massive space for bits per linear inch, >> > then sure, but on today's drives, with perpindicular encoding, and the >> > extremely dense bit capacity, going more than once is silly. >> >> I perform this service for commercial recyclers. > > Or in other words, it must be true because the service provided > depends on this being true.
No. And I find your comment offeisive. > It remains an urban legend as long as there is no proof offered otherwise. > I'm not saying it is true or not, but just that there has never been > a demonstration made public of getting data off drives after > a complete zeroing. That you know of. I suspect I read much more of this literature than you do. > So it remains an unknown, and never demonstrated. You also failed to consider the asymmetry between the possible outcomes once the "truth" becomes known. If one-pass overwrite is sufficient, but one uses multiple passes, then one has lost a small increment of time. If one pass overwrite is not sufficient and you use only one pass, then you have a disaster on your hands. The way to resolve uncertainty is not to guess or flip a coin. It is to carefully evaluate the risk vs. cost tradeoff. People who perform that evaluation tend to be conservative about assessing unknown potential risks against known, fixed, and minor costs. Paranoia is whole 'nother story. I suspect you use the term for dramatic purposes rather than for the purpose of clarity. It devalues all of your comments. Lee Winter Nashua, New Hampshire United States of America (NDY) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/cabaahfbmeqcjwhu+5n3t7hxunssxtsivfuiy-eyjxqu+3qd...@mail.gmail.com
