DISKPART.exe question.

[Mr B]

We are using the DISKPART.EXE command in a wipe script to do a format type
thing on HDDs to write 1s or 0s to the entire drive. The problem is that
diskpart.exe just opens up a blank black box with a flashing cursor which
just sits there for over an hour with no notification that it's actually
doing anything. This has caused a lot of problems for people wondering wtf
is going on.

Anyone know if there's a way to use this command and get a progress bar,
percentage counter, etc so that you can actually see what's going on?

Or maybe an alternative program that will accomplish the same thing but
might have some sort of notifier that it's working?

Thanks.

 

[Mark Adams]

We are using the DISKPART.EXE command in a wipe script to do a format type
thing on HDDs to write 1s or 0s to the entire drive. The problem is that
diskpart.exe just opens up a blank black box with a flashing cursor which
just sits there for over an hour with no notification that it's actually
doing anything. This has caused a lot of problems for people wondering wtf
is going on.

Anyone know if there's a way to use this command and get a progress bar,
percentage counter, etc so that you can actually see what's going on?

Or maybe an alternative program that will accomplish the same thing but
might have some sort of notifier that it's working?

Thanks.

If you want to write zeros to the entire drive, go the website of the hard
drive manufacturer and download their disk utilities. Most of these utilities
create a bootable disk and have the ability to write zeros to the drive. Very
slow in my experience, sometimes taking most of a day for large drives- but
it is a free download. These utilities also have partitioning and formatting
capabilities as well.

 

[Mr B]

This is used as part of an automated script for all kinds of PCs that we have
at work. The team that makes our "wipe" disks have chosen to use
Diskpart.exe to accomplish that.

If there's a universal program that can accomplish the same thing and that
is free for corporate use, we can consider that. Otherwise we just need to
work with Diskpart and see if there's anything we can do to make it show
information as it runs...

 

[JS]

Are you trying to erase sensitive data from the disk,
if so try Eraser.
http://www.heidi.ie/node/6

 

[John Wunderlich]

If there's a universal program that can accomplish the same thing
and that is free for corporate use, we can consider that.
Otherwise we just need to work with Diskpart and see if there's
anything we can do to make it show information as it runs...

What about "Eraser"?
<http://eraser.heidi.ie/>

-- John