> Related question: Every drive on my system seems to get three entries in > /dev like so: > > /dev/sdb > /dev/sdb1 > /dev/sdb2 > > To properly mess up that drive, can I just do this?: > > dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdb > > Or do I have to do this?: > > dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdb1 > > Because sdb1 seems to be the mounted partition with the data. each block device gets an sdX or hdX entry, and then a number for each partition (sdXN). zero out he partition table and the next time you connect the drive it will only have a sdX(or hdX) entry. This will also be the case if you forego a partition table altogether like when you use lvm or luks.