[SOLVED] Is it safe to cancel wiping a secondary drive?

[TYTSoldier]

I couldn't get dban to work so I'm using Minitool Partition Wizard Disc Wipe on a 5tb drive doing a 0s and 1s pass and it's only moved 1% in an hour. I didn't think it would take more than 7 or 8 hours. Is it safe to cancel and do it again only writing 0s instead? (Which is claims is faster). I want to be able to sell the hard drive after. Not sure if I also need to format it for it to be readable when it's done.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I don't know why you're bothering with all that anyhow.

Stop the process, use windows disk management to delete any existing partitions on the drive. Then create a new partition on the drive, format the partition using standard formatting procedures and there is zero chance anybody is going to recover anything from it unless it's the FBI or a forensics lab, and if either of those are looking at any hard drive you have then you have bigger problems than worrying about what kind of format to run in the first place.

 

[TYTSoldier]

I don't know why you're bothering with all that anyhow.

Stop the process, use windows disk management to delete any existing partitions on the drive. Then create a new partition on the drive, format the partition using standard formatting procedures and there is zero chance anybody is going to recover anything from it unless it's the FBI or a forensics lab, and if either of those are looking at any hard drive you have then you have bigger problems than worrying about what kind of format to run in the first place.

Thanks, someone elsewhere told me to just format, but then I was told I need to wipe a drive with dban or something similar. I ended up just canceling and deleting the volume in disk management then creating a new volume. Hopefully that's all I need to do.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If in doubt, simply run an additional full (Not "quick") format on the drive by opening disc management or file explorer, and right clicking the drive and selecting format. Be sure to uncheck the "quick" option if it is selected. Full formats will take a bit longer but certainly no where near as long as a dban or other military level wipe.

 

[TYTSoldier]

If in doubt, simply run an additional full (Not "quick") format on the drive by opening disc management or file explorer, and right clicking the drive and selecting format. Be sure to uncheck the "quick" option if it is selected. Full formats will take a bit longer but certainly no where near as long as a dban or other military level wipe.

Thank you, I did a full format to be safe. It said Healthy after I was done, and CrystalDisk also said good. Do you know if there could be any issues with the drive since I canceled the Minitool partition wizard disc wipe at 3% or am I likely good due to the drive being labeled as Healthy in disk management and good in crystaldisk?

 

[Darkbreeze]

It would not cause any problems. I've cancelled many a format due to changing my mind about what type I wanted to do, or whether it needed multiple partitions, etc., and never had issues. Cancelling a format doesn't actually DO anything to the drive. It just STOPS doing things to the drive.

Now, not that this WOULD cause any problems either, but stopping the process in the middle of creating a partition, if you could even do that since it happens rather quickly, that, might potentially raise some issues but it's unlikely. You're fine.

 

[TYTSoldier]

It would not cause any problems. I've cancelled many a format due to changing my mind about what type I wanted to do, or whether it needed multiple partitions, etc., and never had issues. Cancelling a format doesn't actually DO anything to the drive. It just STOPS doing things to the drive.

Now, not that this WOULD cause any problems either, but stopping the process in the middle of creating a partition, if you could even do that since it happens rather quickly, that, might potentially raise some issues but it's unlikely. You're fine.

That's good news, thank you. This all will make the process a lot simpler for future hard drives as well.

 

[Darkbreeze]

For sure. Goold luck Soldier.