[Tfug] Drive erase options?

[earljviolet at deserthowler.com]

On Thu, January 14, 2010 8:54 am, Nathan England wrote:
> 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

And, if you plan to reuse the drive, it does a good check for .... bad
blocks ... too.

Earl