Is there a terminal command or a process to follow to erase all the RAM on my computer? Thanks!!

power off. I don't know other way

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do you mean harddrive ? if so maybe boot into a live-usb and use dd to write 0's/nulls/random stuff all over the platter.

(pan is correct, all the memory locations of volatile-ram are reset to 0 v every time power is removed from it.)

You have to leave it powered off for a short time at a reasonable temperature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_remanence#Data_in_RAM

^ sure but isnt that due to residual power remaining from energy absorbed from capacitors and inductors ? i think removing that power would reset everything so that voltage = 0 and no current is flowing thru the wires ?

...
i had an old crt tv when unplugged i could hit the power button and the screen would flash for half a second and then quickly fade.
more pertinently, i had an old packard bell desktop that i was replacing the cmos. i hit the power button when it was unplugged and the fan spun around about half a full revolution.
...

all this is moot since the question seems wrong since deleting memory from a running system would probably kernel-panic it. i assume the op actually wants to empty the harddrive before donating a laptop or something ?

Parts of ram could be erased. At some point you'd run into working OS and it would then fail. A great amount or ram is needed to keep the OS working.

^ so it is impossible to 'completely erase all ram' of a running system since at least the kernel would have to stay resident in memory.

this:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ckware-896616/

I've found that an assumption is usually the first mistake you make in solving a problem... Unless your first step is to try and prove it correct.

Maybe the Op would like to enlighten us as to the reasons.

Play Bonny!

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in college labs we would annotate assumptions all the time. e.g.:
assume resistance is equal to 1k
assuming a 50% duty cycle
...

i see nothing wrong with assuming as long as it is a logical leap (and not jumping to conclusions) and like you said, in a proof, as long as you make room for corrections. without assumptions, we wouldnt be able to continue to calculate and hack around and experiment and retry with different sets of controls/assumptions.

memtest would wipe it all, to wipe most of it you could just write a C program and calloc until the OOM killer kills the program, but you have to turn off swap.

I agree, but have had occasions where I've assumed something to find out I was wrong. I've probably made loads of assumptions when fixing kit over the last 30/40 years but I find that the assumption has to be followed up with a "Let's see if I can prove the assumption..." For assumption you may be able to say "theory"

I remember having a problem on an old DEC RL02 drive (Yup! I'm that old) which was giving read/write errors, we replaced the heads, Servo system, control PCBs, Drive motor with nothing left. I'd assumed that there was no way the connector in the rear bulkhead could have a short in it, it's a sheet of metal with a non-moving connector in it, how could it be faulty? - it was.

Oh, and with lots of the posts here we have no option but to make assumptions because the Op hasn't thought about the question they're asking from the perspective of those reading it.

Play Bonny!

Those are two completely different types of assumptions.

An assumption like "the OP writes RAM but we assume he intends to wipe his HDD [because wiping his RAM doesn't make any sense] is drawing a conclusion.

The "lab" assumption: "let's assume the duty cycle is 50%" is setting a value for something unknown. Not completely unknown though, it must be an assumption based on something. Either a duty cycle which is more than 0% and less than 100% and no clear knowledge of what it could be. Or the knowledge that it can be anything between 0% and 100%. That is not drawing a conclusion.

In the case of this question, it could be that someone had found a lengthy and inefficient process for cleaning RAM. Then a valid assumption would have been: "Assuming the OP's machine has 8GB RAM, the process would take so and so long."

That is quite a different assumption from "he must have intended to clean his HDD".

jlinkels

theory would be a better word. thanks,

Power off would in fact erase common ram.

Ram locations are located in many places. From small chips on hard drive to other locations. We assume the work ram to be the type one installs in slots but there are memory locations available that could be burned or programmed in.

To make a leap to hard drive out of ram on an OP from NY is a bit of a leap I'd think. Surely they'd mean ram to be the type tested by memtest.

To wipe a hard drive dban I think is a common choice. Many others exist to erase a hard drive too.

Please see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_boot_attack

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