[PLUG] Erasing tapes

[Larry Williams]

I can't test this, but wouldn't wipe do the job? I would think something 
along the lines of

wipe -Da /dev/st0

would work, although it could take a long time (35 passes by default, 
use -q to do four passes). In the same time and with less mechanical 
wear and tear you could sit a few rare earth magnets on the cartridge.

Sean Whitney wrote:
> I have a bunch of DLT tapes I want to erase and give to freegeek.  I 
> don't have a degausser, nor do I really want to invest in one.
>
> I wrote this script in an attempt to do a fairly decent job of erasing 
> the tapes.
>
> I realize that with enough forensic work there is data that's 
> recoverable, however since I'm not a secret gov't agency I doubt anyone 
> really cares.
>
> I'm looking for feedback on this script, things that might make it "better".
>
> #/bin/sh
>
> MT=`which mt`
> DD=`which dd`
> DEVICE="/dev/st0"
> $MT -f $DEVICE rewind
> $MT -f $DEVICE erase
> $DD if=/dev/urandom of=$DEVICE bs=2048K
> $MT -f $DEVICE compression off
> $DD if=/dev/zero of=$DEVICE bs=2048K
> $MT -f $DEVICE erase
> $MT -f $DEVICE eject
>
> Note: The compression off statement was needed, otherwise the server 
> just went along compressing zero's and writing something to tape about 
> every hour.....
>
>
> Sean
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG mailing list
> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
>   


-- 
            L a r r y   W i l l i a m s
PM, Holbrook #30, AF&AM | RP, Acacia #22, Amaranth
Forest Grove #37, RAM   | Tualatin #31, OES
Sunset #20, Cryptic     | Dad, Hillsboro #24, IORG