Can't erase (external) harddrive (always stalls at same-ish point)
Hi guys,
I'm trying to erase my external USB harddrive in order to set it up with encryption.
However, this first (kinda basic) step fails, erasing the harddrive...
Well, I tried different commands:
shred -v /dev/sdc1
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc1
# trying to speed up things
dd ibs=1048576 obs=1048576 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc1
# speed up a lil more
dd ibs=104857600 obs=104857600 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc1
However, no matter which command I use or for how many hours I wait, it doesn't seem to get past erasing the first 63GBs (my harddrive is ~500GB). E.g. the shred command starts out fine (speed as expected), but progressively slows down more and more until it reaches 63GBs. And it was at 63GBs for about 2.5 hours before I eventually killed the process. And with dd it was a similar story. Whenever I checked the progress it didn't get beyond 63GBs, even with the increased ibs and obs values.
What's going on here, why can't I erase the harddrive? I also reformatted the harddrive (using gparted) as ext3, but that didn't change anything...
Anybody an idea what's going on here?
Cheers
keineeile
Oh, I'm running Arch 64Bit...
Edit:
I wasn't sure where to post it, since I'm not sure if it's a hardware problem or aplication problem...?
Last edited by keineeile (2012-12-07 21:25:22)
May I suggest a "tool box" such as "Parted Magic":
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php
or
http://sourceforge.net/projects/partedmagic/
On the desktop you will find "Partition Editor" (GParted) to erase the hard drive's partitions & from the device heading create a new partition table.
I would also suggest using "Disk Health" (GSmartControl) to give the hard drive a once over in case your issue is a failed/failing sector (been there!).
If all is good, then also on the desktop is "Disk Eraser" for multiple ways (including dd) to erasing the hard drive.
Then of course go back to GParted to give the hard drive a new partition table & partitions.
In Parted Magic's menu is "TrueCrypt" for your encryption.
There is a x64 Parted Magic available & can be used for chrooting into a bricked x64 system.
With Firefox available you can also get online to find a solution to a bricked system (been there too!).
straykat
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It was previously formatted under Windoes XP Home-Edition.
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Can someone help ?
Connected via USB 2.0.
HardDrive can be formatte without problems under my WinXP Pro Notebook.Hello.
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<Personal Information Edited by Host>Black_Chevy07 wrote:
I just got a WD My Passport 1TB External Harddrive and i have already backed everything up to it but im still a little nervous about erasing things off the physical drive on my macbook pro since it says my disk utility is out of space an implying i need to erase items.
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