DBAN questions

[Anonymous]

I just ran a DoD scan of DBAN a few nights ago using version 1.0.1...great program...I just have a few questions...1) throughout the entire test my CPU Load always seemed to be above 200%, is that normal? 2) I ran the default Dod test...what are the differences between the DoD, ops2, gutmann, prng and quick tests? 3) is the 1.0.3 version considerably faster then the 1.0.1 when running a DoD test? or any other one of the tests?

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-Asus P4C800-E Deluxe mobo BIOS 1018
-Pentium 4 2.6 ghz "Northwood"
-Corsair PC3200 512 MB (2 x 256) DDR400 Ultra Low Latency Dual Channel memory w/heat spreader/memory timings 2.5-3-2-6
-IBM Deskstar 60GXP 60GB 7200RPM ATA100

 

[dajhorn]

1) throughout the entire test my CPU Load always seemed to be above 200%, is that normal?

Yes. It is normal for the dban-1.0.1 release, but it is fixed in the lastest release.

2) I ran the default Dod test...what are the differences between the DoD, ops2, gutmann, prng and quick tests?

I do not have a simple description, so if you are interested in the method implementations, then review the source code.

3) is the 1.0.3 version considerably faster then the 1.0.1 when running a DoD test? or any other one of the tests?

The latest version has driver updates that may improve performance on some hardware. YMMV.

 

[Anonymous]

DBAN 1.0.1

thanks for the reply....

to follow up on something...when I used version 1.0.1 and was getting that CPU Load of 200+% was that just a display error or was my CPU Load really that high during earlier versions of DBAN?.

 

[dajhorn]

That number was actually derived from the system load average.

In the current release, the "CPU Time" field shows actual processor utilization, which is usually near zero because DBAN is usually waiting for disk I/O to happen, and the load average is copied straight from the proc file.