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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What are common tools on Linux to wipe an HDD pre RMA? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A Qnap NAS has a drive with some bad sectors, I want to RMA it, but before just want to figure out how to prepare a drive? It's part of a raid 5 setup of 4 drives unencrypted. So I want to remove it and wipe it. Got a Linux machine I can use, but never done this before.

What are common Linux tools to do that sensibly?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

If the drive has bad sectors that it can't read right now, it likely had other sectors that were marginal and got copied (remapped) to new spare sectors before they became unreadable. So there is still potentially recoverable data in the remapped sectors, and not much you can do about it.

Basically, writing zeros to the disk is about as good as you can hope for. If your data is s00per seekrit to the point where you can't stand the possibility of any bits at all being recovered, you basically have to melt the drive. Otherwise, zero it and send it in.

Next time, set up encryption ahead of time, so your new drives never see plaintext. Some drives have a "secure erase" feature that is basically a crappy version of this built into the drive.