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View Full Version : [POLL] What is the largest amount you have shredded a file by?


xdragonforce
May 4th, 2012, 09:51 PM
So yeah, what is the largest number you have put in a shred option. I think the largest I entered was 10000000. So

shred -u -z -v 10000000 hello.c
blithen
May 4th, 2012, 11:48 PM
What? lol I don't get it. What does Shred even do?
Lightstar
May 5th, 2012, 01:03 AM
0 !
pqwoerituytrueiwoq
May 5th, 2012, 06:21 AM
the max amount spybot S&D's secure shredder will let you been a few years since i messed with it since i dont use windows
jespdj
May 5th, 2012, 06:44 AM
What? lol I don't get it. What does Shred even do?


man shred
forrestcupp
May 5th, 2012, 01:51 PM
man shred

We're too lazy to look. Just tell us. :)

And where's the poll?
Bandit
May 5th, 2012, 02:44 PM
We're too lazy to look. Just tell us. :)

And where's the poll?

I think Shred replaces files that are still on your system that you deleted (i.e. just removed entry from the file system table) with 1s and 0s repeatedly until it cant be recovered..

Then again I just woke up and havent had any caffine. So I can be wrong..
zombifier25
May 5th, 2012, 02:54 PM
Seriously, noone here used shred? (and again, in order to wipe a hard drive completely, DiskDestroyer (dd) is more popular :P )
shred overwrite a file with random bytes repeatedly (can use /dev/random or urandom as a source of random bytes) n times, so that it's completely unrecoverable.
Bandit
May 5th, 2012, 03:01 PM
Seriously, noone here used shred? (and again, in order to wipe a hard drive completely, DiskDestroyer (dd) is more popular :P )
shred overwrite a file with random bytes repeatedly (can use /dev/random or urandom as a source of random bytes) n times, so that it's completely unrecoverable.

Really for your average user and even myself, dont really have a need for it unless I need to destroy data. I have used it in windows to make sure the temp folder data was completely dead. But really dont see the need for it here. If I am selling a computer, I will use dd on the drive in it before installing a fresh copy of ubuntu. But thats about it for me. I guess if I had been up to qustionable activity I might have a failsafe setup to run and remove files and replace them with garbage. But I do no wrong these days O:)
HermanAB
May 5th, 2012, 03:17 PM
Just encrypt your data partitions. Shred is kinda useless.
Bandit
May 5th, 2012, 03:21 PM
Just encrypt your data partitions. Shred is kinda useless.

** I tend to agree, if your data security is that important **
forrestcupp
May 5th, 2012, 04:46 PM
Shred is useless, but it's still kinda fun. :)
Old_Grey_Wolf
May 5th, 2012, 08:11 PM
So yeah, what is the largest number you have put in a shred option. I think the largest I entered was 10000000. So

shred -u -z -v 10000000 hello.c

10000000, why? Anything over 7 is probably a waste of time.
synaptix
May 6th, 2012, 04:30 AM
[delete]
Paqman
May 6th, 2012, 08:00 AM
So yeah, what is the largest number you have put in a shred option.

Probably about 3.

You only ever need to overwrite once, all that Gutmann stuff is just voodoo nonsense, as Gutmann himself explained. No one is going to be checking your platters with an electron microscope, and one pass will prevent software tools from recovering anything.

But yes, encryption is even easier. You don't need to lift a finger, then when you want to get rid of the drive just delete the partitions and rest easy. Overwriting whole drives is sloooooow.