Software to wipe drives

[DDrWiZZ]

Hi all,
I need advice on software to wipe drives.
Dban works good for smaller drives but fail to wipe
the newer 1.5tb drives.
Any ideas?

[magneto]

What is the purpose of the wipe? Security?

[DDrWiZZ]

The purpose does not change the problem, but lets say for security.

[hddguy]

There are many possible reasons for wiping, and many software available. A simple search on google should find many for you. Even basic hex editors can be used to fill disk with 00.

[DDrWiZZ]

Thanks hddguy, I have tried a couple including Hex Editors and some work, some don't.
Dban wipes in a dos/linux environment on almost any pc and up to 3 or 4 drives at one
time but not the 1.5tb and that is what I would like to find - a tool to wipe these bigger
drives overnight 2-4 at once.

[magneto]

The purpose does not change the problem, but lets say for security.

Of course the purpose changes things. Ask any government entity in the world if the wiping parameters do not matter. To answer your question use anything like:

http://www.x-ways.net/winhex/

http://www.cprtools.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=30&zenid=akaqbpgu43tbhp5063k6cggvj3

http://www.killdisk.com/

http://www.blancco.com/en/products+services/blancco+pc+edition/overview/

[enderst]

if it were me, i'd just use linux and dd
dd if=/dev/zero /dev/sdx

[DG12]

HDDerase from http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml or on the http://www.UltimateBootCD.com/download.html , will ERASE the contents of the entire drive at once using the internal SECURE ERASE command. This is the fastest erase and cannot be stopped.
If the drive is powered off after accepting the SECURE ERASE command, on power up it will be locked.
In this state the drive will continue the erase unless it is unlocked (after being partially erased) if the internal password is known.

[enderst]

hmmm
should have been

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx

[scratchy]

To overwrite these drive 2 or more at a time. Get an external eSata box with a port multiplier (we use 2 x 5 port ones) and an eSata card that supports Port multiplication and drives > 1tb ..

Using Windows Disk Manager, set up a RAID 0 array using the drives you want to wipe. Then set winhex to overwrite the array. once complete, break the array by converting the disks back to normal and you only have a few sectors to wipe at each end of each drive to complete the operation.

We use this for wiping clone drives and has worked for years (we also have an 8 port ATA RAID box that has a SCSI interface that we use in the same way for wiping ATA drives).

If you want more detailed info PM me.

<itch>