CBL Data Shredder Disk Wipe Tool

[NCDad]

I am using CBL Data Shredder disk wipe tool to erase an HDD. The tool has been running for over 48HRs. There are three different clocks at the bottom of the screen. I have no idea what those clocks are telling me. At least one of the clocks is counting downwards. There is an accumulating % scrolling on the left side of the screen. It is over 1250% and continues to increase. Not sure what the percentage is telling me either. I don't know if the tool is still working or not. I've never used this disk wipe program before and don't know what to expect. I tried DBAN twice before using CBL & DBAN would hang at some point as I never got to the DBAN confirmation screen. Can anyone explain if CBL is working properly or not? Thanks!

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there NCDad,

I haven't used that tool, but 48 hours should be more than enough in order to write zeros on the drive. Given the fact that another tool hangs as well, I would say that there should be something wrong with the drive.
You can test it with some brand specific(or a third party one) HDD testing tool. The results should provide a S.M.A.R.T report which will eventually show what is wrong with the drive. My guess would be that there are some bad sectors on it.

In case the drive is still under warranty, it may be a good idea to contact the manufacturer and eventually RMA it.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[NCDad]

Hi D_Know_WD,

Thank you for responding. I had been thinking the same. In the mean time, I downloaded & created an ISO of Ultimate Boot CD. So far, the only HDD tool on that ISO that seems to work is Parted Magic. From what I can make sense of, it appears that UBCD 5.3.5 doesn't have many SATA HDD tool options, mostly IDE or SCSI.

Using Parted Magic, I ran quick health scan of the SATA HDD (model ST3750640AS); it came clean with no bad sectors. A more in depth scan is over 3HRs. I'm passing on that scan & will accept the 60sec version instead.

Parted Magic also has a disk erase function. I started it to see if it will complete. Documentation says it can be anywhere from 40-330mins to complete. Unfortunately, there is no progress report, so I'm waiting again for this to complete.

While tinkering around with UBCD, I came across FalconFour's Ultimate Boot CD as an UBCD alternative. FalconFour's utilities seem to be more current than UBCD. If Parted Magic doesn't complete, I guess I'll move on to FalconFour's Ultimate Boot CD.

I don't believe the drive is under warranty at this point.

 

[NCDad]

Quick update: The Parted Magic Erase Disk utility completed successfully. Now, I can proceed with re-installing Windows.