17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
On Tue, 10 Oct 1995, Bill Stewart wrote:
There has been considerable discussion on the MCIP list about how most *Mac* programs that purport to do this, like Burn, for example, leave stuff over in disk blocks. My understanding is that this is not a trivial problem, and it occurs in MUSH-DOS as well....
Doing it _right_ is not a trivial job. Consider disk controllers that map out bad blocks so the OS never needs to see them - if you're trying to remove highly classified data, the fact that Diskwipe won't ever see them might be a serious problem, even if it is close enough for government work.
FYI the Justice Department requires degaussing a hard drive before it can be declared surplus ... EBD <deletia>