[Tfug] Removable carrier in USB case?

[Zack Williams]

>> My solution - have a spare machine (older dell P4) with no
>> case with just a CD drive and ATA/SATA/SCSI cables dangling
>> out of it.  CD drive has a copy of DBAN in it permanently.
>> Oh, and a keyboard and CRT monitor.
>
> That;s world care's approach to the problem  :>  Of course,
> with 50,000 sq ft, another PC or six isn't a big issue.  :>
> But, here, I dislike having to "store" anything of any size
> that isn't being used actively.  Hence the idea of just
> using a USB enclosure (hard to get much smaller than that).

That is an issue.

>> Sits on a shelf in my garage, I can throw drives at it and
>> wipe in a few hours for reasonably sized ones.
>
> Don't you have problems with heat in the garage?  I am always
> leary of leaving anything out there (especially anything with
> electrolytics inside -- *everything*!) for fear of it prematurely
> dying -- even though the garage door is insulated!

If it dies, it get rid of  it, knowing that I'll get another one
fairly soon - the first one hasn't died yet after 2+ years of service.
  Older P4's with SATA are a dime a dozen from a lot of customers I
have who are upgrading to new Macs.

It's only on for a few hours, mostly at night, and I tend not to run
it on 100+ degree days in the summer.

>> Much easier/faster than comparable solutions with adapters.
>
> I'm not worried about the time it takes to wipe.  I can
> always be doing something else while the disk is getting
> brainwashed.

I find that about 1 in 10 drives has some sort of error that results
in DBAN not completing all the way.  I'm pretty sure this occurred
during the multi-thousand hour lifespan of the drive, not the 2-3
hours of wiping.

- Zack