[Bloodyskullz]

I have one question about them. Do programs such as DBAN and Terabyte copy and wipe completely erase everything on the hard drive including the MBR?

Which program does that job best and how long does it take?

Thanks in advance.

[Elvandil]

Yes. Read about them. Those that meet DOD standards make data unrecoverable. It takes about as long as chkdsk /r since it scans every byte on the drive.

[Bloodyskullz]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

Yes. Read about them. Those that meet DOD standards make data unrecoverable. It takes about as long as chkdsk /r since it scans every byte on the drive.

If you don't mind me asking, what is DOD?

[Elvandil]

Department of Defense. They have pretty high security standards.

[JohnWill]

Actually, most of the ones doing the DOD erase will take considerably longer than the CHKDSK /R, since the DOD erase specifies a number of passes.

Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify. THIS METHOD IS NOT APPROVED FOR SANITIZING MEDIA THAT CONTAINS TOP SECRET INFORMATION.

[Elvandil]

Yes, that's true. I should have specified "per pass".

[bizziebill]

So, does CHKDSK /R erase the HD or just check it for problems?

[Elvandil]

Checks for problems, attempts recovery of bad clusters, and marks bad clusters so they won't be used by Windows.

[Bloodyskullz]

Which option in Terabyte Copy and Wipe is the best to use?

[Elvandil]

What are the options?

[Bloodyskullz]

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe-ss.htm

Last screen shot on the page.

[Elvandil]

The one that takes the longest--35 passes.

Here is the manual:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/copywipe.pdf

[Bloodyskullz]

Is that like 24 hours +?

[Elvandil]

Depends on the drive size, but could be, yes.

[Bloodyskullz]

Thanks for the help. Appreciate it.