On Thu, 25 Jan 2007, Avi Baumstein wrote:

> HDDErase.exe uses the built-in ATA function to wipe a drive, and is
> recommended by NIST for secure data destruction. It is claimed to be at
> least twice as fast as overwriting, with a greater level of security,
> but I haven't done any comparison tests.

That would make sense, since if there's a command in the drive firmware 
that says 'wipe yourself' all that data doesn't have to cross the various 
busses between CPU/memory/PCI/IDE.  Erasure speed would be limited only by 
the size of the drive and its rotational speed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Jon Lewis                   |  I route
  Senior Network Engineer     |  therefore you are
  Atlantic Net                |
_________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________