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my command is srm -r "the title of the directory"

it does 38 passes which is insanely too much and recently I noticed I can't see the process of the deletion using ubuntu in the terminal! it is blank now.

is this a data concern, because I heard ubuntu shares data.

I used to be able to see the deletion process and I think I was using the wrong commands because it was doing 38 passes. but i can't even see the process anymore, that is not fun and it just makes me worry more.

2 Answers 2

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Use the "verbose" option to have it show process

srm -rv "the title of the directory"

Use -l for 2 passes and -ll for 1 pass. Both are less secure though. So ...

srm -rvll "the title of the directory"

Omitting the l or ll will have srm do ...

1 pass with 0xff
5 random passes. /dev/urandom is used for a secure RNG if available.
27 passes with special values defined by Peter Gutmann.
5 random passes. /dev/urandom is used for a secure RNG if available.
Rename the file to a random value
Truncate the file

so indeed 38 passes :)

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  • For personal use I think it is enough to overwrite once. I don't think any tool or method that can be used for a reasonable cost can recover data for a hard disk drive or SSD that has been overwritten once. Probably there is no tool at all that can read overwritten data according to this reference.

  • A better alternative, if you rely on the built-in software in the drive, is to remap the connection between the logical memory cells and the physical memory cells. This is much faster and causes less wear of the drive. You can do it via the command line tool hdparm.

  • A good alternative is to use 'encrypted disk' alias LVM with LUKS encryption from the beginning. Then it is enough to 'forget' the passphrase.

  • Reference: Can Intelligence Agencies Read Overwritten Data? A response to Gutmann.

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