DBAN alternatives

AndyPix

50Twuncle wrote: »

Still no way forwards -

The way forwards has been presented. Destroy the platter using your preferred method and either throw them in the WEEE skip if you have one on site, or take them to the local tip (in small batches so it can be classed as household waste)

50Twuncle

AndyPix wrote: »

The way forwards has been presented. Destroy the platter using your preferred method and either throw them in the WEEE skip if you have one on site, or take them to the local tip (in small batches so it can be classed as household waste)

This seems such a waste - they have plenty of life left in them.......

AndyPix

50Twuncle wrote: »

This seems such a waste - they have plenty of life left in them.......

Balance this waste against the cost of your time to thoroughly erase and then re-purpose them.


If it is worth it for you then set up a rig where you can DBAN 5 or so at a time and crack on with it.

almillar

I agree with not wanting to waste the drives. You don't have to do them all at once. Can you store them in the roofspace, list a few on ebay, and wipe as they sell? That way you'll have an incentive to wipe them.
Also, I think I might have missed that you're using USB -NO! If you've a desktop you should have a spare SATA (even if not, unplug your main drive for safety). This will be far faster.
You're limited by the speed of the work the drive is doing, and the USB connection not by DBAN.

S0litaire

I've a dozen old ide drives that are still working, no errors! I keep them just incase...

50Twuncle

almillar wrote: »

I agree with not wanting to waste the drives. You don't have to do them all at once. Can you store them in the roofspace, list a few on ebay, and wipe as they sell? That way you'll have an incentive to wipe them.
Also, I think I might have missed that you're using USB -NO! If you've a desktop you should have a spare SATA (even if not, unplug your main drive for safety). This will be far faster.
You're limited by the speed of the work the drive is doing, and the USB connection not by DBAN.

Good Idea - I will dig out another PC and try that......

Gloomendoom

50Twuncle wrote: »

When you use DBAN - it doesn't give me any choice about the type of overwriting it does

I used it the other day, from a USB pen drive, and it gave me about five different options to use, ranging from simple zeros to some kind of triple pass, belt and braces, FBI approved shenanigans.

50Twuncle

almillar wrote: »

I agree with not wanting to waste the drives. You don't have to do them all at once. Can you store them in the roofspace, list a few on ebay, and wipe as they sell? That way you'll have an incentive to wipe them.
Also, I think I might have missed that you're using USB -NO! If you've a desktop you should have a spare SATA (even if not, unplug your main drive for safety). This will be far faster.
You're limited by the speed of the work the drive is doing, and the USB connection not by DBAN.

OK Trying SATA and it is still way too slow - estimated 3 hours for a 500Gb HDD - Using (presumably) the quickest method, (single pass 1's)

almillar

You're not going to wipe a drive any faster, no matter what the software is. You don't have to sit and watch it! I just did a 750 GB laptop drive and it too 12 hours, on the standard system (3 pass and some random pattern).

unforeseen

Even the top range stuff will take that long. I regularly use Blancco and that takes around 3 hours for a disk

The answer is to have a machine or two where you can connect multiple disks and kick them off to run overnight Doesn't impact you and the fact it takes a few hours is immaterial. It's the way we do multi disk servers