- [ Erasing files / hd's beyond recovery ] -

Whether your selling your computer, have a hacker girlfriend, superparanoid or just want to delete your knowledge and information about UFOs beyond recovery just deleting it wont do it.

To delete a single file use the tool Shred which usually comes preinstalled on most distributions.

Shred 'options' [filename]

options are:
-n ( number of times you want to overwrite )
-u ( remove the file after its done )
-z ( overwrite the file with only zeros to hide that it was shredded )

Example:

shred -u -z -n 10 area51.txt

if your even more paranoid and want to remove stuff from RAM and or Swap try using The Secure Delete Tools. On a Debian based system use:

sudo apt-get install secure-delete

[-.,.-*''*-.,,.-*''*-.,,.->

And so if you want to delete your entire drive download DBAN, burn and boot it up.

You will get a couple of options, i would recommend going with ENTER.

press space to chose the HD(s) you want to erase.

After that press M chose the method you want to use to erase.

For most people a quick erase is enough and will not be able to be recovered, remember that even the quick erase take loads of time. So unless you found out who shot JFK and stored the information on your computer go with something fast.