How Does a DOD-Level Data Wipe Work?
Three Pass Overwrite
A three pass overwrite
means that the data is overwritten with a set of characters three times.
There is a verification pass as well to check that all the data on the
drive has been overwritten.
There is a standard
process for the three pass overwrite: a single pass with a “0”
character, followed by a single pass with a “1” character, and a final
pass with a random character.
Seven Pass Overwrite
Like the three pass overwrite, the seven pass pattern overwrites the data many times with a specific pattern of characters.
The standard seven pass
process is: a “0” character pass, a “1” character pass, random character
pass, a second random character pass, a “0” character pass, a “1”
character pass, and a random character pass before the final
verification pass.