format HP-UX disk

[SUBRAMANYAM ANUPINDI_1]

Hi,

We are decommissioning our prod boxes which have HP-UX 11i Ver1 O/S on it. We want to format disks to clean up data.

a) We want to cleanup data so that data can't be recovered with any method

b) We want to use these disks again for some other purpose.

I read about "mediainit" and assume that will work for both a) and b)

1)If "mediainit" works can some one give me detail steps on how this can be done.

2)If "mediainit" is not the option than what is the other methods to do this.

Thanks

[Torsten.]

>> a) We want to cleanup data so that data can't be recovered with any method


Any method?

Shredder them.

[Matti_Kurkela]

If the data on the disks is worth more than the price of new disks, the most reliable method is to actually physically destroy the disks.

But if the disks need to be reusable, overwriting the data (possibly multiple times) is the best you can do.

For any disks manufactured in this century, "mediainit" is not recommended:

http://viktorbalogh.net/blog/hp-ux/hp-ux_sysadm/some-thoughts-about-mediainit-low-level-formatting-and-why-it-mustnt-be-done

Michael Roberts' answer in this old thread includes instructions for building a custom Ignite boot media (=a bootable tape) that will completely overwrite all disks attached to a HP-UX system with zero bytes:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/General/Best-way-to-DOD-wipe-drives-with-sensitive-data/m-p/4926568#M159101

MK

[Mel Burslan]

Please keep in mind that, short of taking a sledge hammer and a power drill to physically destroy the storage platters of a disk drive, you DO NOT have a 100% proof way of wiping out your data. With the sufficiently high tech devices and methods, your data can be dug up from wipe-out by any kind of software method.

Having said that, running your disk thruough this command, several times in succession, should give you a peace of mind :

dd if=/dev/urandom of=dev/rdsk/cXtXdX bs=8192k

Hope this helps.

[SUBRAMANYAM ANUPINDI_1]

Thanks all for reply. I can compromise data for re-use. These disks will be used within our company and data security shouldn't be that serious.

So, can i run dd command on non O/S disk while system is UP and finally run on O/S disks. Our O/S disks are software mirrored on two disks. How we can do this for O/S disks

[Pete Randall]

> How we can do this for O/S disks

Same way as for the other disks. The only difference is that the dd will eventually fail when it overwrites enough of the OS and the machine fails.


Pete

[Mel Burslan]

or, you wipe out the non-os disks first. Build your new OS on the newly wiped disks. Once the system is bac alive, wipe out the old OS disks using the same method.

Hope this helps

[TwoProc]

Just be aware that for SSD's this is an altogether different question, in which it is extremely impractical to think you can wipe out a disk, as you can never "see" all of the flash memory to wipe it out, you can only "see" what's presented *as a disk*.

[donna hofmeister]

You may wish to consider WipeDisk/ux from Allegro Consultants (www.allegro.com). The product can be rented if you don't have an on-going need for the product.

[Michael Leu]

This is what I do to clean the boot disks:
1) boot Ignite 11.31 from network
2) select [ Run an Expert Recovery Shell ]
3) tftp the files 'libpthread.so.1' and 'mediainit' from another system
4) chmod u+x mediainit
5) mv libpthread.so.1 /usr/lib/hpux32/
6) mediainit -S