R: PATA hard disks, anyone?

[Chuck Guzis]

On 03/26/2018 12:26 PM, ethan at 757.org wrote:

> AFAIK there has been a bounty out to recover data with a single wipe
> that hasn't been collected. I thought it was all theory and never done
> in practice?

Here's the Gutmann paper that many people cite:

https://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/library/proceedings/sec96/full_papers/gutmann/index.html

This may be applicable to early hard drives, but probably not practical
with later hard drives.  However, like a bad penny, the legend has
persisted and IT management has, ever since, been irrationally paranoid.

--Chuck