[bighead]

I can't for the life of me figure out the answer to this question, so I figured I'd shoot it out here:

I notice that both Toast and Disk Utility have "Quick Erase" options. However, using a non-Quick Erase also erases a disk. Does this slow erase do a better job at eliminating the data than a quick erase? Reasoning behind the question is that I've got about 20 CD-RW that I am transitioning to DVD-RW and I would like to figure out if it is safe to toss them in the trash after a slow erase. I always take a knife to the surface of optical disks that have had private data, but is this erasure method reliable in any real way?

Any help would be appreciated!

[TETENAL]

Microwave them (only a few seconds until the flashes spark).

[chabig]

A quick erase replaces the disk's catalog with a new, empty one so it looks like nothing is on the disk. But the data is really still there.

A slow erase erases the whole disk, catalog and data.

Depending upon how paranoid you are, I'd say a skip the erase part altogether and just physically mutilate them.

Chris