Wiping a USB drive.

On 08/06/2020 21.18, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 05:05, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 04.12, T wrote:
On 2020-06-07 15:25, Paul wrote:
WhereasÂ*inÂ*myÂ*UnixÂ*days,Â*IÂ*hadÂ*oneÂ*orÂ*two Â*"rmÂ*-Rf"Â*accidents :-)
LikelyÂ*aÂ*matterÂ*ofÂ*familiarityÂ*breedingÂ*cont empt
("whatÂ*couldÂ*goÂ*wrong?").

I had one of these too.Â* I was up all night repairing
the boss' (worthless, no account) son's computer.Â* I
finished just as everyone got there in the morning.
I told them I was tired and I was going home to sleep.
My boss told me I could not go home as it was my fault
(which it was).Â* I shook my head and left.

Boss' sons ruin companies.

I don't remember having important accidents with dd, which I use a
lot, precisely because I'm aware that it is a dangerous command and I
am extra careful with it.

And once you are aware that it is dangerous, it is a very useful command.



If in doubt, unplug the devices at risk.

The devices most at risk are the ones running the system, and those can
not be disconnected. Just do not make errors and you will be safe.

So, you will use some clickandpoint software to do the erase for you? Do
you really trust it to not make errors? What if there is a bug? A
programming error? What if Windows changed some rule and now A is B?

LOL.

I'm safer with dd.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 15:31, Paul wrote:
The Windows version of "dd.exe", has the all important command

dd --list

Tried it in Fedora. Unrecognized command. Rats.

df and gparted are good too.


Try this one, on Windows. dd.exe --list

http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip

Paul

On 2020-06-08 18:31, Paul wrote:
T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 15:31, Paul wrote:
The Windows version of "dd.exe", has the all important command

Â*Â*Â* dd --list

Tried it in Fedora.Â* Unrecognized command.Â* Rats.

df and gparted are good too.


Try this one, on Windows.Â*Â*Â* dd.exe --list

http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip

Â*Â* Paul

Hi Paul,

I carry several live USB's and a full Fedora
flash drive. When I get too annoyed with
the limitations of Windows, I boot into Fedora.

Fedora has all the cool tools. I especially
love being able to do UDP and/or TCP trace routes
to specific ports.

I will download that utility. Thank you!

-T

On 2020-06-08 17:53, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 21.18, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 05:05, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 04.12, T wrote:
On 2020-06-07 15:25, Paul wrote:
WhereasÂ*inÂ*myÂ*UnixÂ*days,Â*IÂ*hadÂ*oneÂ*orÂ*two Â*"rmÂ*-Rf"Â*accidents :-)
LikelyÂ*aÂ*matterÂ*ofÂ*familiarityÂ*breedingÂ*cont empt
("whatÂ*couldÂ*goÂ*wrong?").

I had one of these too.Â* I was up all night repairing
the boss' (worthless, no account) son's computer.Â* I
finished just as everyone got there in the morning.
I told them I was tired and I was going home to sleep.
My boss told me I could not go home as it was my fault
(which it was).Â* I shook my head and left.

Boss' sons ruin companies.

I don't remember having important accidents with dd, which I use a
lot, precisely because I'm aware that it is a dangerous command and I
am extra careful with it.

And once you are aware that it is dangerous, it is a very useful
command.



If in doubt, unplug the devices at risk.

The devices most at risk are the ones running the system, and those can
not be disconnected. Just do not make errors and you will be safe.

So, you will use some clickandpoint software to do the erase for you? Do
you really trust it to not make errors? What if there is a bug? A
programming error? What if Windows changed some rule and now A is B?

LOL.

I'm safer with dd.




I will boot into Fedora (Linux) and do a

ls -al /dev/sd*

to see what is mounted. Then insert the flash
drive and do it again to see who shows up.
Unplug the flash drive and see who disappears.
And do it again. Sometimes I also fire up gparted
ti double check

Never got into trouble with dd. Got into a lot
of trouble with

rm -rf

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Sjouke Burry wrote:
On 05.06.20 0:03, Peter Jason wrote:
On Thu, 04 Jun 2020 18:00:43 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Peter Jason
wrote:

Does formatting several times effectively wipe a small thunb drive?

formatting, which only needs to be done once, just marks it as blank,
however, the data is still there and can potentially be scavenged.

if you want to wipe the data to prevent that, you will need to write
zeros to all blocks, usually called a secure erase and only one pass is
needed.
Thanks, does DOS have a wipe app?

You dont need a wipe app.
Just empty the stick.
then write some useless file(s) until the stick is full.

You can use dd for this :-)


OT
Purely by coincidence I noticed that OSFclone by Passmark calls itself a
'dd' utility
- https://www.osforensics.com/tools/cr...sk-images.html

--
Regards
wasbit

On 09/06/2020 09.32, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 17:53, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 21.18, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 05:05, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 04.12, T wrote:
On 2020-06-07 15:25, Paul wrote:
WhereasÂ*inÂ*myÂ*UnixÂ*days,Â*IÂ*hadÂ*oneÂ*orÂ*two Â*"rmÂ*-Rf"Â*accidents :-)
LikelyÂ*aÂ*matterÂ*ofÂ*familiarityÂ*breedingÂ*cont empt
("whatÂ*couldÂ*goÂ*wrong?").

I had one of these too.Â* I was up all night repairing
the boss' (worthless, no account) son's computer.Â* I
finished just as everyone got there in the morning.
I told them I was tired and I was going home to sleep.
My boss told me I could not go home as it was my fault
(which it was).Â* I shook my head and left.

Boss' sons ruin companies.

I don't remember having important accidents with dd, which I use a
lot, precisely because I'm aware that it is a dangerous command and
I am extra careful with it.

And once you are aware that it is dangerous, it is a very useful
command.



If in doubt, unplug the devices at risk.

The devices most at risk are the ones running the system, and those
can not be disconnected. Just do not make errors and you will be safe.

So, you will use some clickandpoint software to do the erase for you?
Do you really trust it to not make errors? What if there is a bug? A
programming error? What if Windows changed some rule and now A is B?

LOL.

I'm safer with dd.




I will boot into Fedora (Linux) and do a

Â*Â* ls -al /dev/sd*

to see what is mounted.Â* Then insert the flash
drive and do it again to see who shows up.
Unplug the flash drive and see who disappears.
And do it again.Â* Sometimes I also fire up gparted
ti double check

I just check the last lines of the syslog or the journal. Unplug-plug
might make the stick appear as a different device the next time.

So I check the log at least twice. I run "file -s /dev/sdX" for
confirmation. And/or an lsblk concoction.


Never got into trouble with dd.Â* Got into a lot
of trouble with

Â*Â* rm -rf

Yep.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

wasbit wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message
...
Sjouke Burry wrote:
On 05.06.20 0:03, Peter Jason wrote:
On Thu, 04 Jun 2020 18:00:43 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Peter Jason
wrote:

Does formatting several times effectively wipe a small thunb drive?

formatting, which only needs to be done once, just marks it as blank,
however, the data is still there and can potentially be scavenged.

if you want to wipe the data to prevent that, you will need to write
zeros to all blocks, usually called a secure erase and only one
pass is
needed.
Thanks, does DOS have a wipe app?

You dont need a wipe app.
Just empty the stick.
then write some useless file(s) until the stick is full.

You can use dd for this :-)


OT
Purely by coincidence I noticed that OSFclone by Passmark calls itself
a 'dd' utility
- https://www.osforensics.com/tools/cr...sk-images.html

The download is 351MB, so it's probably a kind of Live Linux CD.

The README says it's using some of the code from here.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dc3dd/

"A patch to the GNU dd program, this version has several features
intended for forensic acquisition of data. Highlights include
hashing on-the-fly, split output files, pattern writing,
a progress meter, and file verification."

And it's apparently available as a Cygwin package (which means
more fun in terms of disk naming conventions). When Cygwin does
/dev/sda type operations, it's "not quite the same" as doing them
on, say, Linux. Programs ported that way end up a tiny bit
different for some reason.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dc3...dc3dd/7.2.646/

dc3dd-win7-64-7-2-646.zip

dc3dd.exe 236700 bytes
cygwin1.dll 3538860
cygintl-8.dll 40979
cygiconv-2.dll 1033235
cyggcc_s-seh-1.dll 71187

I guess we'll never lack for a hobby then :-) You can never
be too rich, or have too many copies of "dd".

Paul

On Tue, 9 Jun 2020 00:27:45 -0700, T wrote:

On 2020-06-08 18:31, Paul wrote:
T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 15:31, Paul wrote:
The Windows version of "dd.exe", has the all important command

*** dd --list

Tried it in Fedora.* Unrecognized command.* Rats.

df and gparted are good too.


Try this one, on Windows.*** dd.exe --list

http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip

** Paul

Hi Paul,

I carry several live USB's and a full Fedora
flash drive. When I get too annoyed with
the limitations of Windows, I boot into Fedora.

Fedora has all the cool tools. I especially
love being able to do UDP and/or TCP trace routes
to specific ports.

Sounds like you're referring to tcpdump. Check out the Windows port,
Windump. It does most of what I need, including "UDP and/or TCP trace
routes to specific ports".

Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 09/06/2020 09.32, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 17:53, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 21.18, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 05:05, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 04.12, T wrote:
On 2020-06-07 15:25, Paul wrote:
Whereas*in*my*Unix*days,*I*had*one*or*two*"rm*-Rf"*accidents :-)
Likely*a*matter*of*familiarity*breeding*contempt
("what*could*go*wrong?").

I had one of these too.* I was up all night repairing
the boss' (worthless, no account) son's computer.* I
finished just as everyone got there in the morning.
I told them I was tired and I was going home to sleep.
My boss told me I could not go home as it was my fault
(which it was).* I shook my head and left.

Boss' sons ruin companies.

I don't remember having important accidents with dd, which I use a
lot, precisely because I'm aware that it is a dangerous command and
I am extra careful with it.

And once you are aware that it is dangerous, it is a very useful
command.



If in doubt, unplug the devices at risk.

The devices most at risk are the ones running the system, and those
can not be disconnected. Just do not make errors and you will be safe.

So, you will use some clickandpoint software to do the erase for you?
Do you really trust it to not make errors? What if there is a bug? A
programming error? What if Windows changed some rule and now A is B?

LOL.

I'm safer with dd.




I will boot into Fedora (Linux) and do a

** ls -al /dev/sd*

to see what is mounted.* Then insert the flash
drive and do it again to see who shows up.
Unplug the flash drive and see who disappears.
And do it again.* Sometimes I also fire up gparted
ti double check

I just check the last lines of the syslog or the journal. Unplug-plug
might make the stick appear as a different device the next time.

So I check the log at least twice. I run "file -s /dev/sdX" for
confirmation. And/or an lsblk concoction.


Never got into trouble with dd.* Got into a lot
of trouble with

** rm -rf

Yep.

Even rm a filename.
--
This ant finally went out far after 2 months and 23 days / 12 weeks / 84 days / 0.23 years. :O ..!.. *isms, sins, devil, illness (e.g., COVID-19/2019-nCoV/SARS-CoV-2), etc.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org /
/ /\ /\ \ http://antfarm.ma.cx. Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

On 2020-06-09 11:54, Ant wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 09/06/2020 09.32, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 17:53, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 21.18, T wrote:
On 2020-06-08 05:05, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 08/06/2020 04.12, T wrote:
On 2020-06-07 15:25, Paul wrote:
WhereasÂ*inÂ*myÂ*UnixÂ*days,Â*IÂ*hadÂ*oneÂ*orÂ*two Â*"rmÂ*-Rf"Â*accidents :-)
LikelyÂ*aÂ*matterÂ*ofÂ*familiarityÂ*breedingÂ*cont empt
("whatÂ*couldÂ*goÂ*wrong?").

I had one of these too.Â* I was up all night repairing
the boss' (worthless, no account) son's computer.Â* I
finished just as everyone got there in the morning.
I told them I was tired and I was going home to sleep.
My boss told me I could not go home as it was my fault
(which it was).Â* I shook my head and left.

Boss' sons ruin companies.

I don't remember having important accidents with dd, which I use a
lot, precisely because I'm aware that it is a dangerous command and
I am extra careful with it.

And once you are aware that it is dangerous, it is a very useful
command.



If in doubt, unplug the devices at risk.

The devices most at risk are the ones running the system, and those
can not be disconnected. Just do not make errors and you will be safe.

So, you will use some clickandpoint software to do the erase for you?
Do you really trust it to not make errors? What if there is a bug? A
programming error? What if Windows changed some rule and now A is B?

LOL.

I'm safer with dd.




I will boot into Fedora (Linux) and do a

Â*Â* ls -al /dev/sd*

to see what is mounted.Â* Then insert the flash
drive and do it again to see who shows up.
Unplug the flash drive and see who disappears.
And do it again.Â* Sometimes I also fire up gparted
ti double check

I just check the last lines of the syslog or the journal. Unplug-plug
might make the stick appear as a different device the next time.

So I check the log at least twice. I run "file -s /dev/sdX" for
confirmation. And/or an lsblk concoction.


Never got into trouble with dd.Â* Got into a lot
of trouble with

Â*Â* rm -rf

Yep.

Even rm a filename.


Ya, no trash box.

I always leave this in place, although other hate it.

$ alias rm
alias rm='rm -i'

Always prompts me for a yes or no.