What is the fastest way to erase a SATA drive?

[True Colors]

I am using Darik's Boot and Nuke application to erase a 2 TB western digital SATA drive. This is an internal drive that is currently sitting outside of my computer so I can work on it.

It is taking FOREVER to erase this thing...... as in 5 days.

I have a 5 year old Dell computer.....P4, 2.8 Ghz. I connected it to this SATA drive by using an external USB to SATA adapter cable.

Is there some way to speed this up?

Thanks,

TC

 

[treefrog07]

I would use WD's Digital Lifeguard utility to write 0s and 1s to the HDD. I haven't used it on a 2TB HDD, but it didn't take too long on a 500GB HDD.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Also if you can hook it up to SATA it will be many times faster than USB.

 

[True Colors]

I would use WD's Digital Lifeguard utility to write 0s and 1s to the HDD. I haven't used it on a 2TB HDD, but it didn't take too long on a 500GB HDD.

Is this free?

My hard drive has a few applications on it that are linux based. I want to erase all of that and then put a couple of new linux applications onto the drive.

Perhaps the Darik's boot and nuke(DBAN) is not the best application for me to be using. I would also be open to looking at any other applications that would work here.

Can I do this with Microsoft windows and my external adapter cable?

Thanks,

TC

 

[MRFS]

Partition Wizard freeware has a "Wipe Disk" option:

www.partitionwizard.com

Wipe Disk

Wipe Disk can destroy all information in your chosen disks safely and permanently. This function can ensure the security of your private and unwanted data and prevent someone from recovering your data. Once the Wipe operation is carried out by Partition Wizard, the data will not be recovered by any data recovery software. If you use the method of DoD 5220.28-STD, the data can not be recovered by any data recovery solutions.

You can apply this function by click Action Panel -> Operations -> Wipe Disk or Wipe Disk in the Disk menu.

[END QUOTE]


MRFS

 

[Rab1d-BDGR]

A microwave... ;-)

I suppose it depends how paranoid you are about wanting to erase your old data. Unless you are worried about someone rooting through your deleted linux applications with forensic software then a standard format or the "writing zeroes " techniques shouldn't take too long. I've never used Darik's Boot and Nuke - 5 days sound pretty excessive!

 

[Hawkeye22]

DBAN uses a very sophisticated algorithm to securely wipe a drive. If all you are doing is reusing it, than a quick format will suffice or delete the partition and recreate it.