decomissioning data

[Andrew_80]

Hello all...

We have migrated our client from old Hardware to a new one and now it is time to destroy the data on the old systems. The old systems are connected to EMC frame. My question is :

- Is it enough to do rm -r * or newfs on the file system ?
Some one was saying that this won't wipe off all the data completely and that we have to format the drives (V-talk - EMC)I agree that formatting the drives will ensure the deletion, but Do you think that it is a MUST.

Thanks a lot

[Eugeny Brychkov · Accepted solution]

Andrew,
if you want to be really sure that your data is not accessible then take a hammer and....
If talking seriously deleting files will simply unlink allocation units, and if aiming to steal information one can restore correct units layout and get your data back. You need to force system to overwrite your data with something useless: by formatting device (this is good question if format really fills units with 0's or 0xff's but not simply marks unit as free - this is a difference between windows-like quick and full format operation) or filling manually - by dd'ing garbage to the raw physical volume
Eugeny

[Stan Sieler]

Hi,

You'll probably want to copy data on top of
the disks you're trying to decomission.

I've posted about free alternatives to
do this before, and "dd" is certainly one
option. If you use "dd", be sure not to
simply copy, say, an HP root volume ...
that would leave a copy of HP-UX on it,
which is a violation of your license
agreement (a poorly written agreement that
everyone violates...but... :)

Some online/offline diagnostics may be able
to functionally erase a disk, so that might
be worth checking out (although most require
a password from HP).


WipeDisk/UX is designed for erasing (quick or thorough) disks on HP-UX systems.
http://www.allegro.com/products/hp9000/wipedisk.html

[Caesar_3]

Hello!

Question is what the porpose of destroy the data if you have some secrets that is only for your eyes so work on the disks that in the end
will be only a dust but if not and you use
unix so
dd if=/dev/null of= bs=2048k
and will destroy.

Caesar

[Andrew_80]

That is great, Thanks a lot to all of you,

[Massimo Bianchi]

Hi,
i know that i'm late, but this post will help you.


http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x30b9506d69a7d711abdc0090277a778c,00.html



and rememebr to use /dev/zero as input, because /dev/null can supply you with only 1 (one) 0, and /dev/zero an unlimited number !

HTH,
Massimo