From nobody Fri Oct 11 07:44:27 2024 X-Original-To: questions@mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4XPzCx6VC9z5YS53 for ; Fri, 11 Oct 2024 07:44:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rfg@tristatelogic.com) Received: from outgoing.tristatelogic.com (segfault.tristatelogic.com [69.62.255.118]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4XPzCw6W6Sz4pFj for ; Fri, 11 Oct 2024 07:44:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rfg@tristatelogic.com) Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=none; spf=pass (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of rfg@tristatelogic.com designates 69.62.255.118 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=rfg@tristatelogic.com; dmarc=none Received: by segfault.tristatelogic.com (Postfix, from userid 1237) id BE38F4E690; Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:44:27 -0700 (PDT) From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How to zero a failing disk drive before disposal? In-Reply-To: <0bd5d79d35bb036fc73cd226edae1b969b22e3ee.camel@riseup.net> List-Id: User questions List-Archive: https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-questions List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-ID: <14176.1728632667.1@segfault.tristatelogic.com> Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:44:27 -0700 Message-ID: <14177.1728632667@segfault.tristatelogic.com> X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-2.09 / 15.00]; SUBJECT_ENDS_QUESTION(1.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-1.000]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-0.99)[-0.990]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+mx]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; ONCE_RECEIVED(0.10)[]; RCVD_NO_TLS_LAST(0.10)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; RCVD_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; RCPT_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; ASN(0.00)[asn:14051, ipnet:69.62.128.0/17, country:US]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROMTLD(0.00)[]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; TO_DN_NONE(0.00)[]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; MLMMJ_DEST(0.00)[questions@freebsd.org]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[tristatelogic.com]; MISSING_XM_UA(0.00)[] X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4XPzCw6W6Sz4pFj X-Spamd-Bar: -- In message <0bd5d79d35bb036fc73cd226edae1b969b22e3ee.camel@riseup.net>, Ralf Mardorf wrote: >After countless discussions about [1] and having recovered and not >recovered lost data myself, I am firmly convinced that it is sufficient >for a private household to overwrite just 1 time. After that Joe and >Jane Lunchbucket can't recover the data anymore and it's also quasi >impossible for a geek to recover something. Agree. But I'm a "belt & suspenders" kind of guy. :-) >The problem with the Lunchbucket family's HDDs is that they only replace >them when they are defective anyway. At best, you can free up stuck >heads and be happy if you can get your 4 TB drive overwritten at all. I should know one way or the other in about 8 hours. >It is not for nothing that it is said that you should mount a drive >"read only" as soon as possible after data has been lost in order to >have any chance of recovering anything at all. Fortunately, I had the Good Sense to have multiple recent backups, so I don't believe I lost anything. But I cloned the failing drive onto a fresh near-new drive (which I'm using now) which could posibly mean that I have some corrupted files on the new production drive. I'm in the process of md5'ing all important files on both the new production drive and one of my backups. When that's all done I'll compare the two sets of md5 hashes and retrieve anything where I got a mismatch from the backup drive. (I believe that the backup in question was made _before_ I installed the now-failing drive and tried to use it as a production drive.)