# Ways to delete and format multple hard drives?



## joseph6044 (Mar 19, 2013)

The company I work for has me delete hard drives and format via external usb docking stations and using disk management as the software. This is a slow process and I have been trying to figure out ways to speed things up. Does anyone know of ANY other way to test multiple hard drives, including erasing and formatting? I don't care if there is hardware/software the company needs to buy in order to do this because the way we do it now is crazy slow. Please anyone, i just need another way. We do both SATA and IDE.


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## wolfeking (Mar 19, 2013)

Formatting is not secure, so use a quick format and you will get by a lot faster with the same end result. 

If you are trying something like DOD wipe or the like, then DBAN will do multiple disks at the same time, as will gparted and partedmagic.


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## joseph6044 (Mar 19, 2013)

wolfeking said:


> Formatting is not secure, so use a quick format and you will get by a lot faster with the same end result.
> 
> If you are trying something like DOD wipe or the like, then DBAN will do multiple disks at the same time, as will gparted and partedmagic.



I have been doing a format through disk managment since it seems to be the easiest way to click on multiple drives one after the other. I use a FAT since it is faster. But there has to be another way to hook something up to test multiple drives faster. There are companies that specialize in this and im sure they dont have someone using a basic $50 docking station. Im wondering if there is something else i could use or do? And i Have been doing a quick format.


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## johnb35 (Mar 19, 2013)

Doing only a quick format is technically not erasing the data and neither is a full format.  You can still recover data after doing both of these.  Are you reusing these drives or getting rid of them afterwards?  You need to be using either dban or kill disk.


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## joseph6044 (Mar 19, 2013)

johnb35 said:


> Doing only a quick format is technically not erasing the data and neither is a full format.  You can still recover data after doing both of these.  Are you reusing these drives or getting rid of them afterwards?  You need to be using either dban or kill disk.



My boss does not really care about completely erasing the data. We get these as wholesale lots. They are pretty dirty and disgusting. He just does a quick format and cleans them and sells them to other countries. Im not concerned about deleting the entire drive. He just wants to know if they will do a quick format. The way we are doing it though is very time consuming because I can only do one at a time really. I just need to know a better way to hook up multiple drives and make sure they take a quick format.


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## larsch (Mar 19, 2013)

Try looking into diskpart. It has a scripting feature.

Unless you are using xp or older, a full format will also zero all the sectors.


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## S.T.A.R.S. (Mar 20, 2013)

*Uhh...BLABLABLA?*



joseph6044 said:


> My boss does not really care about completely erasing the data. We get these as wholesale lots. They are pretty dirty and disgusting. He just does a quick format and cleans them and sells them to other countries. Im not concerned about deleting the entire drive. He just wants to know if they will do a quick format. The way we are doing it though is very time consuming because I can only do one at a time really. I just need to know a better way to hook up multiple drives and make sure they take a quick format.



Yes of course you can format multiple drives.In a computer world everything is possible if you know how to do it lol.
Anyway let's say you want to format 10 drives in just two mouse clicks.The easiest and fastest way to do that is to create a small simple BATCH file and execute it every time when you connect 10 drives you want to format.

1. Open notepad.
2. Write this in notepad:

DISKPART.EXE /S "BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_1.TXT"
START BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_2.BAT
EXIT

Save that text file on your desktop as "MULTI_FORMAT_DATA.BAT".

3. Open notepad again.
4. Write this in notepad:

SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=Z
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 2
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=Y
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 3
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=X
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 4
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=W
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 5
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=V
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 6
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=U
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 7
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=T
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 8
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=S
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 9
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=R
ACTIVE
SELECT DISK 10
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=Q
ACTIVE
EXIT

Save that text file on your desktop as "BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_1.TXT".

5. Open notepad again.
6. Write this in notepad:

FORMAT.COM Z: /FS:NTFS /VISK_1 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM Y: /FS:NTFS /VISK_2 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM X: /FS:NTFS /VISK_3 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM W: /FS:NTFS /VISK_4 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM V: /FS:NTFS /VISK_5 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM U: /FS:NTFS /VISK_6 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM T: /FS:NTFS /VISK_7 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM S: /FS:NTFS /VISK_8 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM R: /FS:NTFS /VISK_9 /Q /X /Y
FORMAT.COM Q: /FS:NTFS /VISK_10 /Q /X /Y
MSG * "All formatting operations have finished! - By: S.T.A.R.S."
EXIT

Save that text file on your desktop as "BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_2.BAT".

So now you should have 3 different files:

-MULTI_FORMAT_DATA.BAT
-BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_1.TXT
-BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_2.BAT

Now (somewhere/anywhere where you would like) create a new folder and call it however you want...for example "FORMAT_THE_DRIVES_DATA".
Now select those 3 files called "MULTI_FORMAT_DATA.BAT","BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_1.TXT" and "BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_2.BAT" and move all 3 of them in that folder called "FORMAT_THE_DRIVES_DATA" (using simple CUT / PASTE operation).
Now simply (somewhere/anywhere where you would like) create a shortcut of that file called "MULTI_FORMAT_DATA.BAT"...on let's say...desktop.

That's it.
And finally here is how you use this to format all 10 drives with just 2 mouse clicks every time:

1. Connect all 10 drives to your computer and make sure they are detected by the operating system and that of course they are working properly.

2. Perform double mouse click on desktop shortcut called "MULTI_FORMAT_DATA.BAT".

The process will automatically start formatting all 10 connected drives and once everything is finished,you will be notified with a text message which says:

All formatting operations have finished! - By: S.T.A.R.S.

After that you can disconnect all 10 drives and sell them (or do whatever the hell you want to do with them) 

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:

MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE USING THIS ON A COMPUTER WHICH HAS ONLY ONE PHYSICAL HARD DISK DRIVE BECAUSE IF IT HAS MORE THAN ONE,THIS PROCEDURE WILL ERASE ALL THE DATA ON OTHER CONNECTED HARD DISK DRIVES!!!
SO IF THE COMPUTER HAS MORE THAN ONE PHYSICAL HARD DISK DRIVE CONNECTED THEN OPEN THE TEXT FILE CALLED "BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_1.TXT" AND REPLACE THE "SELECT DISK 1" (and other 9) WITH A CORRECT DISK NUMBER FROM WHICH THE FORMAT WILL START...FOR EXAMPLE "SELECT DISK 3"!!!
IF YOU ARE NOT SURE FROM WHICH DISK NUMBER YOU CAN START THE FORMAT OPERATION,OPEN MICROSOFT DISK MANAGEMENT AND TAKE A LOOK AT THE DISKS's NUMBERS AND ACCORDING TO THAT WRITE THE CORRECT DISK NUMBERS IN THAT TEXT FILE CALLED "BATCH_SCRIPT_DATA_1.TXT"!!!
FOR EXAMPLE...THE FIRST PHYSICAL HARD DISK DRIVE IN THE COMPUTER (usually the one from which you are using the operating system and other things) IS A DISK NUMBER ZERO BECAUSE COUNTING STARTS FROM NUMBER ZERO!!!




Huh!...
Ok...
I think I wrote everything I was supposed to...
My fingers and my head are officially KILLING me!!!
I am going to drink a pill for the headache now and then watch a horror movie (as soon as the headache goes away lol)...
I really really REALLY hate headaches...it's probably the worst type of pain EVER!...Wait...am I still writing with my painful fingers?!?!?!OMG I AM!
SEE YA!

(Now where did I put those damn pills)???


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## voyagerfan99 (Mar 20, 2013)

As others said, formatting a drive doesn't remove the data. If there is data that is sensitive, you wanna run Killdisk or DBAN and do a few passes.


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## larsch (Mar 20, 2013)

#8

I didn't made it up. Microsoft actually did change how full format works. Besides that, diskpart can fully overwrite a drive.


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## voyagerfan99 (Mar 20, 2013)

larsch said:


> #8
> 
> I didn't made it up. Microsoft actually did change how full format works. Besides that, diskpart can fully overwrite a drive.



Quote me next time. Don't just say "Oh hey #8"


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## larsch (Mar 20, 2013)

I don't like to quote just to quote.


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