Erasing disks in bulk.

slipd · 13 Feb 2011 at 19:48

Hey guys,

I've acquired about 20+ IDE/SATA hard drives which I'd like to "erase" and make ready for either selling or possible re-deployment. In the past I've used killdisk - is this still the best of the (free) bunch? Ideally I want to be able to do at least 2 or 3 at time if possible

Any ideas?

Cold_And_Miserable · 13 Feb 2011 at 19:56

Use a rare-earth magnet. Expensive but it should get the job done quickly.

slipd · 20 Feb 2011 at 15:07

PanMaster said:
Use a rare-earth magnet. Expensive but it should get the job done quickly.

Ha! Any sensible solutions? Any good free apps or anything

Fourstar · 20 Feb 2011 at 17:05

DBAN documentation says it will erase (write '0's over the entire drive) any drives connected to a PC when run.

You should be able to stick it on a CD then fill the PC up with as many drives as it will fit then leave DBAN to do it's work.

Parted Magic is another option though I don't know if it allows selecting multiple drives to erase. Don't pick the "Internal: Secure Erase command writes zeroes to entire data area" option as I believe there are some bugs with it that can brick some HDDs.

Redgie · 20 Feb 2011 at 22:26

CCleaner has a secure erase function which writes zeros