Need some experienced input. I was going to use DBAN to wipe a 500G hard drive, but it was going to take 13 hours. Is there another utility that won't take as long? Someone told me 3 to 4 hours is more realistic. I just don't know. I have formatted a drive before, but thought using a utility would be more thorough. Again, I don't know.
How to wipe Hard Drive
- Thread starter copiman
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DBAN zero fills the entire drive over several passes so it is expected that it takes a long time. I usually let DBAN run overnight.
Thanks for responding. I think I'll kick it off this evening and let it run over-nite. What got me thinking was I was at a computer store picking up a hard drive and cables for cloning a hard drive (first time) and I asked how long it should take to wipe. They said about 3-4 hours. They may not be doing a thorough wipe. I think doing a thorough wipe is the best route to go. But then again, I'm still new at this.
Depending on what program you use times will vary. I haven't DBAN myself but I've heard its good. For example if you were to be selling your computer and wanted no one to be able to recover you files then DBAN is a solution. If you don't care then using utility's when installing an OS will do the trick.
I used DBAN over nite and it took care of it. Took 13 hours, but it worked. I'm going to check with the PC store and see what they use.
Hey BK_123, what did you mean by (If you don't care then using utility's when installing an OS will do the trick)?
Basiclly, I need to do it 2 ways. One needs to wipe it where nothing can be recovered. I can use DBAN for this. The other way, I guess I could just reformat the drive. Right?
Hey BK_123, what did you mean by (If you don't care then using utility's when installing an OS will do the trick)?
Basiclly, I need to do it 2 ways. One needs to wipe it where nothing can be recovered. I can use DBAN for this. The other way, I guess I could just reformat the drive. Right?
Correct. You'd want to use the regular format and not the quick option that windows provides to ensure things are less easy to get off (this would take 3-4 hours based on the drive) but DBAN is the way to go if you want to guarantee the drive is clean.
If you are installing an OS and just want to wipe over the drive quickly and get things over and done with..
You can never wipe a hard drive fully (i.e wipe all data on it)
Watched a video on it was very informative
Here is a link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5s4-Kak49o
Watched a video on it was very informative
Here is a link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5s4-Kak49o
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