Question:Destroy a hard drive without proper equipment ?? ??(19 answers) ?? ???Closed 3 years ago. ?
I have a 1T usb 2.0 portable hard drive that I need to get rid of.I didn’t know it’s such a pain to get it wiped!
Tried Eraser, 1 pass(psuedorandom) by default took 18 hours.
Tried Western Digital’s own software to wipe, took another 19 hours for 1 pass.
During the process, due to the bad contact of the USB connector(common problem with this disk), it interrupted so many times, so I had to restart the above process many times to finish them.
tried recovery software, took another 18 hours, and EVERYTING was able to be recovered!!!
I’m at a lost, at my wits’ end. Please help me. How to get rid of this disk fast? Should I just crash it with a hammer?
Answer: The disk wiping tools work by erasing all sectors on your hard drive so it takes a long time. Connect your portable hard drive to another USB port at the back of your computer case, and it may work a bit faster.
Another solution is to find a single large file (for example, a game setup file or a movie), paste it into your portable drive again and again until the drive is full. This will also overwrite all sectors of your disk.