Erasing 1.5TB status show Querying Status and no activity

[justmosing]

I am actually using Eraser as part of my new hard disk stress test regime. I've done a full zero write with WD's tool (it's a Seagate 1.5tb 7200.11). It's not exactly a new disk just one I have used seldomly in the past couple of years, I am about to put it into full time service hence the tests.

Anyhow, i've zeroed the drive, made a new simple partition in windows, quick formatted, and now I am doing a DoD 7 pass.

I have two questions:

1. On an empty drive, what's the difference between using erasing empty space versus erasing the whole drive ie (D:\)...almost look like a weird emoticon.

2. On a drive of this size, if I am erasing the whole drive, does it get stuck in Querying Status for a long time, and how long should I be waiting?

 

[Joel]

Re: Erasing 1.5TB status show Querying Status and no activit

1. On an empty drive, what's the difference between using erasing empty space versus erasing the whole drive ie (D:\)...almost look like a weird emoticon.

On an empty drive, there are still file system structures such as the file allocation table or master file table which may contain sensitive data. The free space erase tries to get rid of these traces, but it may be faster to just wipe the whole drive/partition if there's no data anyway.

2. On a drive of this size, if I am erasing the whole drive, does it get stuck in Querying Status for a long time, and how long should I be waiting?

What interface is the drive connected to your computer via? I've seen querying status messages on drives which are connected via USB, but it should not take more than 1 or 2 minutes for it to give progress updates. What sort of erasure are you doing?

 

[justmosing]

Re: Erasing 1.5TB status show Querying Status and no activit

1. On an empty drive, what's the difference between using erasing empty space versus erasing the whole drive ie (D:\)...almost look like a weird emoticon.

On an empty drive, there are still file system structures such as the file allocation table or master file table which may contain sensitive data. The free space erase tries to get rid of these traces, but it may be faster to just wipe the whole drive/partition if there's no data anyway.

I see, thank you.

2. On a drive of this size, if I am erasing the whole drive, does it get stuck in Querying Status for a long time, and how long should I be waiting?

What interface is the drive connected to your computer via? I've seen querying status messages on drives which are connected via USB, but it should not take more than 1 or 2 minutes for it to give progress updates. What sort of erasure are you doing?

I am using a Thermaltake Black x docking station with the esata interface. The esata is connected to a internal sata to esata cable. Could that be the problem? I thought esata was just a passthrough, maybe the docking station does something weird?

 

[Joel]

Re: Erasing 1.5TB status show Querying Status and no activit

Alternatively, the drive could be failing. Status updates are sent only when one block of data has been written to disk. Does the enclosure show any activity?

 

[justmosing]

Re: Erasing 1.5TB status show Querying Status and no activit

Alternatively, the drive could be failing. Status updates are sent only when one block of data has been written to disk. Does the enclosure show any activity?

Thank you for the help

I have run short and extended tests with speefan and SMART status has all come back completely passing with no reallocated sectors. I ran the drive in dod 7 pass on erase unused space, ran for 24 hours without any problems.

Also, I've noticed something, is there anyway eraser can recognize physical drives without a drive letter?

 

[Joel]

Re: Erasing 1.5TB status show Querying Status and no activit

No, Eraser cannot erase unused space on a drive without a drive letter. However, Eraser 6.2 (beta) can erase an entire partition even without a drive letter.