wiping hard drive

[bucketmouth64]

I use cclean's drive wiper to clean the hard drive, but it takes so long(hours) even if only one pass is done. Is this normal to take so long? Is there another program to wipe hard drive that's faster?

[bobbymalone]

How big is the hard drive?

Sounds pretty normal to me. I think the limiting factor is the hardware and you won't get any faster with different software.

I do 7 passes for hard drives at work with patient medical info and the last one took like 24 hours.

[delcecchi]

Looks like write speed is in the 150MB/s range, so to write a Terabyte is in the couple hour range, as a minimum. Probably longer, since it has to look for the space to write.

Not clear why someone would want to do this unless legally required, eg the medical example. If the cops are breaking down the door it is too late.

[bobbymalone]

I saw in a movie once this guy put thermite or something on all the hard drives and had it wired to a special light switch. So when the cops were kicking down the door, he flipped the switch and it toasted all the drives.

Might be an option for the future.

[jentz]

Google Glary utilities,Its works great and look at what comes up,you can get a free license for the pro utility,It is on the net and it gives a free registration number.There are so many out there!Ncleaner is OK also

[upnorth]

What takes so long is you are writing ones and zeros to the entire drive. Every single sector is written over one character at a time.

If you can get your hands on an industrial type magnet that does a great job of wiping a drive and quick too.

[bobbymalone]

how big a magnet you talking?

I had a friend stick a hard drive on the back of a 12 inch car subwoofer for like a week and it didn't do anything. I was surprised...

I've also had all my credit cards wiped by a nuclear magnetic resonance spectography machine in a chemistry lab. Basically a MRI machine. Forgot to leave my wallet outside. There was a metal chain on the wall in there that would stretch out horizontal when it powered up. Serious magnets in there.

[upnorth]

We used to use electric plug in magnet to wipe drives in a hospital I worked for in the past. It wasn't huge, but it was powerful.

It was while back so I really don't remember exactly how powerful, but with it on you couldn't pull the drive off the magnet.

[jentz]

I've read the magnet stuff,Its a iffy situation and basically a falsity.Use Darik's Boot And Nuke if you want it tottally wiped.For sections or history the above work

[delcecchi]

I've read the magnet stuff,Its a iffy situation and basically a falsity.Use Darik's Boot And Nuke if you want it tottally wiped.For sections or history the above work

[bucketmouth64]

ok, I didn't know that wiping a drive takes a lot of time. I thought because I was using a free ccleaner it was slow. I'll keep using it.