[Tfug] Drive erase options?

[Nathan England]

On Tuesday 12 January 2010 19:26:54 Tom Rini wrote:
> Hey guys.  I'm looking to clean up some odds and ends around the house
> and looking for good and preferably Linux based (since at least some of
> the machines are powerpc) disk erasers.  Standalone (like memtest86) is
> also possible, at least for some of these I think.  Options?  Thanks!
> 

Nothing fast is good and nothing good is fast. With that being said, I really 
like badblocks. I boot a machine with a disc image I have with badblocks on 
it, and it boots to a command line. I  run

badblocks -svfw /dev/sdX

And walk away for a few hours. When it is done, the drive is CLEAN.

Of course, that is only because ammunition has gotten so darn expensive! Gotta 
save what I have!

Nathan