Erasin Hdds...

Best means in Linux to totally erase an HDD? Try the command "dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/drive-id" where drive-id is the root drive /dev name, such as /dev/sdb. That will copy null (0) bytes to every bit of the disc. If you want to make it unreadable, in forensic terms, then you need to write it with 0 bytes (no bits set), FF bytes (all bits set), F0 bytes (top 4 bits set), and 0F bytes (bottom 4 bits set). And finally, another run with 0 bits set. For most purposes, that will erase the disc to where nothing will be recoverable. NSA secure erasure processes specify (I think) about 7 complete wipes of the disc. This just uses 5... :-)