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Time Duration to Erase HDD completely


vissha

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I'm thinking of selling my Old PC(specs below). How long will it take to erase the HDD completely using US DoD 5220.22-M(3 pass) and Gutmann(35 pass)? And which is the best and fastest s/w in erasing HDD with these methods?

Specs:

OS: Win XP Home 32bit(x86)

ASUS P4BGL-VM(Intel 845GL) Motherboard

Intel P4 Processor

512 MB DDR RAM

160GB IDE HDD

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OP: Doesnt the program youre using like give you an estimate, most do...

Perhaps you have a bit of string there and would like us to guess the length of it?

In other words, why dont you , you know, just try and see....

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He has a lots of porn to be wiped out from the earth :D

:angry: :duh: :footinmouth: Hey Wait. Don't just add up your own thoughts. I just want to remove the traces of Genuine Windows, other logged in details, s/w keys, family and personal details etc totally and want to give the buyer with a clean HDD.

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OP: Doesnt the program youre using like give you an estimate, most do...

Perhaps you have a bit of string there and would like us to guess the length of it?

In other words, why dont you , you know, just try and see....

I tried active killdisk and it showed nearly 1 hr when doing the 1st pass in US DoD 5220.22-M and it shoed 9.3 hrs when doing the 1st pass in Gutmann. More powercuts in the city for months(nearly 15 hrs-not continuous). So i stopped. One of My friend told it'll take days. and Another frnd told it'll show more duration but will finish in 20-30 mins. I'm confused.

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This may be of interest:

Site:http://www.lifespanrecycling.com/Code: 2012/04/20/the-myth-of-the-3-pass-dod-data-destruction-policy/
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OP: Doesnt the program youre using like give you an estimate, most do...

Perhaps you have a bit of string there and would like us to guess the length of it?

In other words, why dont you , you know, just try and see....

I tried active killdisk and it showed nearly 1 hr when doing the 1st pass in US DoD 5220.22-M and it shoed 9.3 hrs when doing the 1st pass in Gutmann. More powercuts in the city for months(nearly 15 hrs-not continuous). So i stopped. One of My friend told it'll take days. and Another frnd told it'll show more duration but will finish in 20-30 mins. I'm confused.

The more overwrites or passes you do the longer it takes. Unless you used to work for the CIA, even 3 passes could be considered extreme.

Why not just use SDelete from Microsoft SysInternals, and choose the number of runs:

http://www.guidingtech.com/2834/sdelete-permanently-delete-windows-files/

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He has a lots of porn to be wiped out from the earth :D

:angry: :duh: :footinmouth: Hey Wait. Don't just add up your own thoughts. I just want to remove the traces of Genuine Windows, other logged in details, s/w keys, family and personal details etc totally and want to give the buyer with a clean HDD.

Does buyer's name happen to be "Mr. FBI" or some??? :P

Cause i think that you can do a full low level format ... maybe?

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Two pass is more than enough. Two passes is take approx 1 hour (just a wild guess). Use Darik's Boot And Nuke ^^ or CopyWipe.

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Thanks DKT27, stylemessiah & partial thanks to FreeRyde. I've some related Q&A's:

  • When doing it, can we pause/stop and resume at later time(if there is powersupply problems)?
  • Is it needed to enable the option "clear log file before Start" while erasing the HDD completely using killdisk?
  • If enabled the "initialize device(s) after kill" option, how to install free DOS?
  • Where to get free DOS and how to install DOS after erasing HDD with Killdisk(3 or 35 passes)?
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It's been ages since I wiped any HDD. So I can't answer you much. However, I don't think you need to install any DOS. The person you are selling to, can install any OS he/she wants to.

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if you try to sell PC to your enemy that has laboratory with abnormal expensive hardware equipement for data recovery then you can do that what you say.

if you try sell PC to ordinary people then just wipe disk with zeros, once will be enough.

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Two pass is more than enough. Two passes is take approx 1 hour (just a wild guess).

  • Which is the best parameter with lowest passes(US DoD 5220.22-M, Navso P-5329-26 RL, etc)?
  • And as u said the 2 pass, can the both passes be different(or both random)? Please say the best combination of patterns.
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