best linux live cd for disc wiping

Hello,

What are the best current linux live cd specialising in disc wiping.

I have looked at dban but im not sure how updated it is.

I want to wipe a failing sata hard drive before sending it back to get a replacement.

 

you could try http://how-to-erase-hard-drive.com/

 

Any linux will do. One command - dd.
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/low-level-formatting.html

Mrk

 

The Partition Wizard bootable CD and Terabyte's CopyWipe bootable CD are a couple of options.

 

Parted Magic has disk wiping tools, as well as some other nice features.

 

+1 to dd

 

When running dd, add bs=1M as it will complete much quicker, e.g.

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M

 

I would like to know which is the best too. To my knowledge, Jetico BCWipe Total WipeOut (commercial software) does the most complete job, as it also wipes the Host Protected Area (HPA) and DCO hidden sectors, which others simply ignore.

 

From

Code:

info dd

I don't understand why specifying byte size would make it faster. Does that make it do a whole block at at time, which you've specified to be 1mb instead of the default 512 bytes?

 

Exactly.

 

Aha! thanks

 

Or you can use hdparm to use the drive's built in erase command. Parted Magic has this command also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpZwTaOHdT4

 

parted magic have many good tool agree with tgell )

 

Any Linux LiveCD will do. Just put the CD in, open up a root terminal and type:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M

(where sda is the name of the drive, change it if necessary)

This will overwrite the drive with zeroes and make any data unrecoverable.