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Subject: Re: Unusual Question
From: Doug Hardie <bc979@lafn.org>
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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 23:11:41 -0700
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> On 13 July 2017, at 21:44, David Christensen =
<dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote:
>=20
> On 07/09/17 02:57, Doug Hardie wrote:
>> I have a FreeBSD 9.3 remote server that needs to be purged.  I know =
that rm -rf / will remove all the directory entries, but I need to write =
over the drive.  I thought that dd if=3D/dev/zero of=3D/dev/ada0 might =
do the trick, but it gives an not permitted error.  The whole thing can =
crash and burn at the end.  This is an unmanned site so moving drives is =
not viable.
>=20
> If the machine has BIOS and the system drive isn't too large, write an =
assembly program that fits into the MBR bootstrap code area to wipe the =
rest of the drive, assemble the program, write it into the MBR, and =
reboot.
>=20
>=20
> Bonus: the program deletes the MBR when done wiping the rest of the =
drive.

Neat idea, but I have a number of these systems and they all use =
different disk drives.  That would be a lot of work writing drivers for =
each type.