DBAN alternatives

50Twuncle

I need to "low level format" approx 90 drives
I have tried DBan - which takes ages
Plus - it is hard to use on a USB connected drive (booting on DBAN)
Any alternatives that anyone can recommend ?

John_Gray

ALL low-level format programs have to write to every sector of the disk, and this takes a very long time with large disks.

You may have to revise what you wish to do to the drives.
Otherwise Google for "disk wipe", and try programs like Heidi's "Eraser"...

AndyPix

If the purpose of your low level format is to completely erase data before disposal, i find this tool quite fast .





However - if you intend to re-purpose the drives, then not so much ..

DonnySaver

AndyPix wrote: »

If the purpose of your low level format is to completely erase data before disposal, i find this tool quite fast .





However - if you intend to re-purpose the drives, then not so much ..

This is what I would use too !

S0litaire

AndyPix wrote: »

If the purpose of your low level format is to completely erase data before disposal, i find this tool quite fast .





However - if you intend to re-purpose the drives, then not so much ..

Yup Hammer/Drive interface tends to decrease the resale value slightly...

S0litaire

Are you doing the drives one at a time or multiples at once?

Getting DBAN to boot up from a USB stick is easy. You should be able to find the ISO image for Bootable DBAN on their site. Just make sure the motherboard is set to boot from USB.

Best best is to remove the drives you want to keep and fill it up with as many disks as the motherboard can handle. (including hooking up a few to external USB adapters)

Then you can run DBAN on a bunch of disks at once...

almillar

DBAN is excellent in my experience, and it only takes ages because of what it's doing, wiping or writing every sector on the drive. Any tool will involve time. If you're trying to be secure and doing 7x writes or something, then doing a 3x one, will obviously save a lot of time. Depends on how paranoid you are. 100% paranoid leads to the hammer method, but that could be a waste of good hardware IMO.

50Twuncle

almillar wrote: »

DBAN is excellent in my experience, and it only takes ages because of what it's doing, wiping or writing every sector on the drive. Any tool will involve time. If you're trying to be secure and doing 7x writes or something, then doing a 3x one, will obviously save a lot of time. Depends on how paranoid you are. 100% paranoid leads to the hammer method, but that could be a waste of good hardware IMO.

I am trying to clean the HDD's for resale/disposal - I am using DBAN and it is so slooooow !!
it is currently writing at 29MB/s - a predicted 11 hrs for a 250Gb HDD
How do they do it "professionally" in minutes ?

S0litaire

They don't do it in minutes (that more like movie magic)

The Quick wipe only actually wipes the "Drive indexes" to does not touch the actual data. So it's quick for normal day to day stuff.

Low level wipes actually changed every bit on the disk.

Their are 3 main types of wipes :

1) Random : VERY slow) randomly generated data is created and written to the drive

2) uRandom : Quicker but still takes time) Semi-Random data is generated and written to the drive.

3) Zero : fast all it does is flip every bit on the drive to a "0"

Quickest wipe i usually use is alternating between uRandom and Zero (i.e. do a quick Zero wipe, then wipe using uRandom, then final Zero wipe).

AndyPix

And use the hammer and nail option for the ones you are disposing of

50Twuncle

S0litaire wrote: »

They don't do it in minutes (that more like movie magic)

The Quick wipe only actually wipes the "Drive indexes" to does not touch the actual data. So it's quick for normal day to day stuff.

Low level wipes actually changed every bit on the disk.

Their are 3 main types of wipes :

1) Random : VERY slow) randomly generated data is created and written to the drive

2) uRandom : Quicker but still takes time) Semi-Random data is generated and written to the drive.

3) Zero : fast all it does is flip every bit on the drive to a "0"

Quickest wipe i usually use is alternating between uRandom and Zero (i.e. do a quick Zero wipe, then wipe using uRandom, then final Zero wipe).

When you use DBAN - it doesn't give me any choice about the type of overwriting it does
It appears to be doing zero's - but is taking way to long
12 hours for a single 250Gb HDD is out of the question (I have almost 100 to do)
Are there any companies who will accept HDD and wipe them AND offer money
All that I can find is one that offers £2 per 250Gb / £4.50 per 500Gb hdd - when wiped !!
Hardly worth the effort - just trying to be a bit "green"