Erase option in Disc Utility

I have an external hard drive that contains a "clone" of my internal hard drive and I need to return this short lived external drive and I do not want any "hacker" to be able to use/see/hack any of my programs or picture files.
The erase option in Leopard's Disk Utility says, "If you want to prevent the recovery of the disk's erased data, click Security Options."
Question: How effective is this Security Option?
M

It is very effective for an average user. After a zero out (zeroing writes 1 and 0 to the disk) the data cannot be easily retrieved. Depending on how critical the data is and how sophisticated the recovery techniques are, you can use more passes. Up to 35. This will take an extraordinary long time and unless the CIA is looking for something, IMO is totally useless.
-mj
[email protected]

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    For What its worth, here's my Disc Utility Log:
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    Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
    Determining correct file permissions.
    Permissions repair complete
    The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
    Starting Restore…
    Preparing source…
    Copying…
    An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
    Oct 3 10:36:58: Disk Utility started.
    Starting Restore…
    Preparing source…
    Copying…
    An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
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    Secure Erase completed successfully in 31 minutes.
    Preparing to erase : “iMac”
    Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
    Mounting Disk
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    Oct 3 13:14:34: Disk Utility started.
    Name : iMac
    Type : Volume
    Disk Identifier : disk1s12
    Mount Point : /Volumes/iMac
    File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    Connection Bus : FireWire
    Partition Type : Apple_HFS
    Device Tree : fw/node@48302e2010531/sbp-2@c000/@0:12
    Writable : Yes
    Universal Unique Identifier : 928B5ADE-157B-3375-835F-2E16048B6B0F
    Capacity : 49.6 GB (53,213,077,504 Bytes)
    Free Space : 49.5 GB (53,172,117,504 Bytes)
    Used : 34.6 MB (36,241,408 Bytes)
    Number of Files : 2
    Number of Folders : 3
    Owners Enabled : Yes
    Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
    Can Repair Permissions : No
    Can Be Verified : Yes
    Can Be Repaired : Yes
    Can Be Formatted : Yes
    Bootable : Yes
    Supports Journaling : Yes
    Journaled : Yes
    S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
    Disk Number : 1
    Partition Number : 12
    Starting Restore…
    You must authenticate in order to restore.
    Starting Restore…
    Preparing source…
    Copying…
    An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
    Oct 3 13:27:38: Disk Utility started.
    Oct 3 13:28:01: Disk Utility started.
    Preparing to erase : “iMac”
    Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
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    Erase complete.
    Starting Restore…
    Preparing source…
    Copying…
    An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
    Oct 3 13:49:36: Disk Utility started.
    Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
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    Permissions repair complete
    The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
    Preparing to zero disk : “iMac”
    Secure Erase completed successfully in 30 minutes.
    Preparing to erase : “iMac”
    Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
    Mounting Disk
    Erase complete.
    Preparing to erase : “iMac”
    Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
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    Erase complete.
    Starting Restore…
    Preparing source…
    Copying…
    An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
    Oct 3 15:49:25: Disk Utility started.
    Preparing to erase : “iMac”
    Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
    Mounting Disk
    Erase complete.
    Preparing to zero disk : “iMac”
    Secure Erase completed successfully in 31 minutes.
    Preparing to erase : “iMac”
    Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
    Mounting Disk
    Erase complete.
    Verifying volume “iMac”
    Checking HFS Plus volume.
    Checking Extents Overflow file.
    Checking Catalog file.
    Checking Catalog hierarchy.
    Checking volume bitmap.
    Checking volume information.
    The volume iMac appears to be OK.
    Mounting Disk
    1 HFS volume checked
    Volume passed verification
    Preparing to secure free space : “iMac”
    Creating Temporary File
    Securely erasing file
    Secure Erase Free Space stopped after 36 seconds.
    0.5% complete.
    Erase complete.
    Starting Restore…
    Preparing source…
    Copying…
    An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)

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