wipe -q ETA 12w 2d ?!? Why so long?

filosofic · 04-27-2013, 09:17 AM

I've a 1.5 WD Green HD that failed SMART tests, has 21 or so bad sectors and is basically about to die.
I've reformatted it using GPARTED but wanted to wipe it before getting rid of it.
It's hooked up via a USB2 ext HD case... but even on a SATA connection, it was labouriously slow.

So I've typed
sudo wipe -q /dev/sdg1
answered YES
and the drive is being wiped... but it's going to take over 12 weeks!

Is there a faster way to do this -- I'm even using the -q option for a quick wipe!

Sigg3.net · 04-27-2013, 09:34 AM

When a drive is failing with SMART, wiping is usually an "indefinite" process.

Instead of wiping, which is unnecessary on modern disks, zero it out:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/whatever

then do the same with urandom (there is a faster alternative to urandom here: frandom)

Code:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/whatever

Then destroy the disk physically. Wiping it (like 38 over-writes or something) is NOT necessary on modern disks. But if you insist, shred is probably faster than wipe (unless it's the same:P).

filosofic · 04-27-2013, 10:13 AM

Thanks... trying the dd command now....
frandom looks faster but installing things into the kernel is somewhat above me...
Will stick with the urandom even though its longer.
Thanks.

Sigg3.net · 04-27-2013, 10:17 AM

Anyway, the reason why it's so slow is that the drive is failing.
dd may not be faster, if so try dd_rescue, which ignores block errors and just continues.

filosofic · 04-27-2013, 03:20 PM

Giving dd_rescue a try with
sudo dd_rescue -v -A -z -M /dev/sdg1
Don't know if I should have added a RandSeed interger after the -z.
But after this, I think I'll try taking my torex screwdrivers to it and see what it looks like inside.

ntubski · 04-27-2013, 07:16 PM

See also Secure Erase:

Quote:

Secure Erase* is an erasure command feature embedded into virtually all ATA drives manufactured since 2001.
...
Secure Erase ... uses internal commands embedded in the HDD by the manufacturer. This allows it to process at the speed of the drive, rather than the clock speed of the PC. Secure Erase is virtually always faster than software clears, in many cases significantly faster.

Secure Erase with hdparm: https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase

unSpawn · 04-27-2013, 07:28 PM

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Linux Software forum (not a security issue) and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.