[P1] Archive and Install

[Jack Rodgers]

On Saturday, March 8, 2003, at 05:19  PM, Jay Boshara wrote:

> Make sure to select Install Mac OS 9 Drivers so that current
> versions of DiskWarrior, etc., will work when you need them.  Then 
> click
> Erase.  You have just zeroed out your HD.

The discussion here is over "zeroed out your HD" and not over the 
techniques that were outlined.

This terminology has been used to describe overwriting the entire hard 
drive with ones and zeroes to make inaccessible all of the data it 
contains. Clicking the Erase button does not do this. So, one should 
not refer to that as zeroing the hard drive. I don't know of any 
dictionary, law or anything else that would prohibit such a use but it 
is misleading.

All that erase does is erase the file directory. It does not zero the 
drive in the sense that it write zeros and ones to overwrite existing 
data on the hard drive. That is another option in the disk utility 
application and will take a LOT of time. Erase is almost instantaneous 
since it only erases the directory and does nothing to the data on the 
drive. As you install software and your files, you will overwrite the 
old data with the new and in some instances parts of the old data will 
remain intact until you overwrite it with more files and data.

You can take a disk editor and see that all of the file data is still 
on your hard drive after using erase. A competent person could rebuild 
the drive directory, think Norton Utilities, and reclaim all of your 
files. This is why zeroing the drive is recommended before you sell it 
or give it to someone else. That data is effectively made inaccessible 
to anyone but a government agency and an electron microscope. Someone 
said that old overwritten data can be read at the atomic level..

Clicking the erase button only erases the disk directory and does not 
affect the data on the drive. The data is only accesible to someone 
with what we might call disk editing software, ResEdit comes to mind.

These statements can be easily verified. Go to Versiontracker.com and 
search for resedit.

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jackrodgers at earthlink.net
http://www.jackrodgers.com