Hi friends and thanks for looking at my thread. I have just upgraded 50 dell computers to 500 gig drives and i have been given the 50 old sata 40 gig drives. There is no data on them that needs proper data destruction so i just want to format them all before i move them on. My question is what is the quickest way to format them all?? Can i do 4 at once if i have a PC with 4 free sata controllers on the board or is it a case of 1 at a time?? I wish to do a proper format and not the quick type. Any help greatly appreciated.
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I have 50 hard drives to format. HELP!!
- Thread starter ckes101
- Start date
rclarke250
Technical User
Should be able to, you will need to use a bootable floppy with the correct drivers for the sata chipset, and the format command. Or CD or Thumbdrive. Easiest way I have found to do it, is get a Thermaltake BlacX. It works pretty good. Just remember to turn off the base before changing drives.
are the drives to be used again in the future or are they gonna be trashed?
if they are going to be trashed, why not get a drill and put some holes into the drives, or screw some bolts through them... effectively destroying the drive... and it is Quicker than formatting... you could also hold a bashing day, and use a sledgehammer to flatten them, that way you also have a great stress reliever at hand...
now if they are going to be used once again, then I would SCRUB them instead of just formatting them... that would destroy any DATA, but takes longer than just a format... you never know what employees have on their drives, there may be personal information that others would like to go through, formatting only destroys the MFT and the Partition table but leaves the files almost completely intact... if you are not worried about that, then why not use a Linux LiveCD on that PC with the SATA controller and then FORMAT away... (JMHO)...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
if they are going to be trashed, why not get a drill and put some holes into the drives, or screw some bolts through them... effectively destroying the drive... and it is Quicker than formatting... you could also hold a bashing day, and use a sledgehammer to flatten them, that way you also have a great stress reliever at hand...
now if they are going to be used once again, then I would SCRUB them instead of just formatting them... that would destroy any DATA, but takes longer than just a format... you never know what employees have on their drives, there may be personal information that others would like to go through, formatting only destroys the MFT and the Partition table but leaves the files almost completely intact... if you are not worried about that, then why not use a Linux LiveCD on that PC with the SATA controller and then FORMAT away... (JMHO)...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
BadBigBen is correct - you need to overwrite any data that exists on the disks so that it cannot be retrieved - a reformatting will not achieve that.
50 x 40Gb disks are not a trivial matter in terms of time and hardware usage to purge or clear all the data thoroughly.
DBAN (Dariks Boot and Nuke) is an open source free program that will do what you need.
50 x 40Gb disks are not a trivial matter in terms of time and hardware usage to purge or clear all the data thoroughly.
DBAN (Dariks Boot and Nuke) is an open source free program that will do what you need.
If DBAN won't work with SATA drives over the SATA controllers on the motherboard(s) you use, then you could also look at Active KillDisk.
But definitely don't just use a basic format.
Active KillDisk is only free for "single wipes", so DBAN would be the best choice, if you're looking for absolute FREE, AND absolute data destruction.
As far as a dock is concerned, I can vouch FULLY for this one:
It's by a company called StarTech. I didn't even know who they were before, but their peripheral type devices seem to be of excellent quality.
I recently picked up a few of them for myself and some other guys at church for working on media files at home, then returning them, and not one glitch out of one dock. So far, that's 4 docks and counting, as well as 2 eSata laptop (PCI Express) adapters.
Two or three years ago, I believe it was the thermaltake one that some folks had issues with overheating, even melting. If it wasn't them, it was another common name, I just don't remember for sure. However, I've not seen any such references in any reviews for the past year, I suppose.
I wouldn't imagine that you'd have to worry much about the dock overheating for straight formatting, but it is worth mentioning. Of course, I think the bozos who had the overheating issues were trying to use that as a permanent data connection for a system drive. Just not a good idea.![[wink]](/data/assets/smilies/wink.gif "[wink] [wink]")
But definitely don't just use a basic format.
Active KillDisk is only free for "single wipes", so DBAN would be the best choice, if you're looking for absolute FREE, AND absolute data destruction.
As far as a dock is concerned, I can vouch FULLY for this one:
It's by a company called StarTech. I didn't even know who they were before, but their peripheral type devices seem to be of excellent quality.
I recently picked up a few of them for myself and some other guys at church for working on media files at home, then returning them, and not one glitch out of one dock. So far, that's 4 docks and counting, as well as 2 eSata laptop (PCI Express) adapters.
Two or three years ago, I believe it was the thermaltake one that some folks had issues with overheating, even melting. If it wasn't them, it was another common name, I just don't remember for sure. However, I've not seen any such references in any reviews for the past year, I suppose.
I wouldn't imagine that you'd have to worry much about the dock overheating for straight formatting, but it is worth mentioning. Of course, I think the bozos who had the overheating issues were trying to use that as a permanent data connection for a system drive. Just not a good idea.
And actually, if this is for a corporation, and you'd rather check into paying someone a fee to make sure the data is history, there is a company that's been mentioned on these forums at least a few times. They have servers set up for nothing but wiping data... then they put the drives through an obliterator (for lack of better term). I'm sure someone else remembers the name. No idea of the cost.
goombawaho
MIS
Why would anyone fool around with wiping 40 hard drives if they are NOT going to be used again.
Just put a drill bit through them about three times. Much cheaper and quicker.
Just put a drill bit through them about three times. Much cheaper and quicker.
Goom,
the last post was redundant...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
the last post was redundant...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
Guys, guys relax.
The OP stated:
He doesn't want to destroy them, merely clean them before moving them on to be used elsewhere. Donate them for instance.
Formatting is a single drive operation, so you will have to do it one by one. However any of the tools in the UBCD can do the job easily and quickly enough.
That way you don't have to wait for any machine to fully boot up to start the format. Just plop the Cd in the tray, and let it boot up to the CD's menu and initiate the wipe.
You could probably plug in 3 or 4 at a time and run the wipe sequentially on them. Then turn off the machine and put in 3 or 4 new drives and do it again.
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.
The OP stated:
He doesn't want to destroy them, merely clean them before moving them on to be used elsewhere. Donate them for instance.
Formatting is a single drive operation, so you will have to do it one by one. However any of the tools in the UBCD can do the job easily and quickly enough.
That way you don't have to wait for any machine to fully boot up to start the format. Just plop the Cd in the tray, and let it boot up to the CD's menu and initiate the wipe.
You could probably plug in 3 or 4 at a time and run the wipe sequentially on them. Then turn off the machine and put in 3 or 4 new drives and do it again.
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.
- Thread starter
- #11
goombawaho
MIS
Oh snap. You mean "redundant" in the best way, I'm sure.
ckes101,
If the data is already gone, why do you need to format them? I guess I'm just missing something here, but if the data is gone/wiped, and you just want to sell them, why would you need to format them?
The buyer would format each with whatever OS they choose to install... or if they installed one as a data drive, the OS would still format the drive before use - no big deal. And if you don't format them, it leaves it more "open" to the buyer to decide how to format it. For instance, for Windows, they might want Fat32 vs NTFS for whatever reason. For Linux, they might want one of the 50 different formats one can use there... and so forth.
If the data is already gone, why do you need to format them? I guess I'm just missing something here, but if the data is gone/wiped, and you just want to sell them, why would you need to format them?
The buyer would format each with whatever OS they choose to install... or if they installed one as a data drive, the OS would still format the drive before use - no big deal. And if you don't format them, it leaves it more "open" to the buyer to decide how to format it. For instance, for Windows, they might want Fat32 vs NTFS for whatever reason. For Linux, they might want one of the 50 different formats one can use there... and so forth.
- Thread starter
- #14
Ah, I see... so you're basically wanting to use the format as a quick Disk Scan or Disk Check. Gotcha.
There may be a free bootable tool out there for checking multiple drives, I would think... If they're all by the same manufacturer, by chance, have you thought about checking into the manufacturer's tools and diagnostics? They might have a tool that will let you check multiple drives in one system at once.
There may be a free bootable tool out there for checking multiple drives, I would think... If they're all by the same manufacturer, by chance, have you thought about checking into the manufacturer's tools and diagnostics? They might have a tool that will let you check multiple drives in one system at once.
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