[wplug] degaussing tapes and hard drives

[Moshe Katz-Hyman]

I remeber from one of the Peter Gutmann articles linked to from Darik's
Boot'n'Nuke (http://dban.sf.net) FAQ  that Degaussing harddrives requires a
field far inexcess of what is easily attainable, even for a physics lab.  I
suggest running dban on the drives.  The tapes, however can be degaussed, I
would imagine using any old degausser.  In fact, I remember back when I
worked at the radio station in college, we had a degausser that was
basically an electromagnet with a plug.  Plug it in, wave it near a 1/4"
tape for 30 seconds, then slowly pull it away.

On 2/21/06, terry mcintyre <terrymcintyre at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Have you checked with the physics lab at CCAC? Odds
> are that they'd have some powerful magnets handy, and
> would be well acquainted with the units of
> measurement, field equations, and so forth needed to
> do a good job of de-gaussing the tapes.
>
> --- "Poyner, Brandon" <bpoyner at ccac.edu> wrote:
>
> > Does anybody have suggestions on degaussing SDLT
> > media and hard drives
> > without buying a $2,000+ unit?  I'm looking to get
> > it done locally.  I
> > don't want to destroy the tapes for warranty
> > reasons, and I don't want
> > to send them far offsite for security reasons.  The
> > drives I'm willing
> > to destroy and/or degauss.  It looks like I need
> > something with at least
> > a 4000 gauss field strength.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Brandon Poyner
> > Network Engineer III
> > CCAC - College Office
> > 412-237-3086
> >
> >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > wplug mailing list
> > wplug at wplug.org
> > http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug
> >
>
>
> Terry McIntyre
> UNIX for hire
> software development / systems administration / security
>
> 213-291-5169 or 2132915169 at tmomail.com ( text )
> terrymcintyre at yahoo.com
>
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