How is OS X Disk Utility's secure erase mode in comparison to other commerical secure delete methods/apps?

How is OS X Disk Utility's secure erase mode in comparison to other commerical secure delete methods/apps?

Within OS X, the utility Disk Utility has a secure erase for hard drive formatting. It has 1,7, and 33 pass options, which to my knowledge are very good writting random data to the drive. What does os x not do that other commercial products do? What makes more advanced software a much better secure erase solution?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 330

Total answers/comments: 2

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bert [Entry]

"Nothing. A single-pass wipe is effectively secure.

(Don't believe it? Contact a reputable data-recovery firm and price a recovery from a true single-pass surface wipe. If you have data that someone -- anyone! -- would realistically be willing to pay the quoted price to recover, consider something more rigorous, like maybe a three-pass wipe.)"

bert [Entry]

"The nicer you can make that polished turd look, the more people will spend on it. :)

All wipe algorithms are essentially the same. You may get some fancy random ones, but they all accomplish the same goal. I personally use DBAN, but writing zeros to a disk is writing zeros to a disk no matter how you look at it."