Gaming Dumb question about software to nuke a HDD?

[PsyBlade]

shred --verbose -n1 /dev/sda

 

[yusuo]

If you really don't want the drive hit it with a big sledgehammer and then throw it in a river or off the top of a big building

 

[Damian666]

if i need to make data go poof, i just hit it with a sledgehammer, solved.

ofcourse this is no option if you want to re-use the drive, but man its effective xd

Dami

 

[Originality]

I have seen data survive a sledgehammer (or at least, 60% of the data was recoverable). That's why DBAN was created, to make the data non-recoverable before you get happy with the hammer.

 

[Nimbus]

I would format the drive like 4-5 times, which should do the trick.

Linux Live CD's can do this very efficiently. You can also use Windows as well.