Application Wide Data Destruction Method ~ How long should it take to wipe?
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Hard Drive/Disk size: 500 GB w/ 355 GB Free Space.
In the past when performing a Data Destruction wipe w/ the "U.S. Standard, DoD 5220.22-M" it would take 4-5 hours, and w/ the "NAVSO P-5239-26 (RLL)" it would take 8 hours.
Currently it is now taking no more than 5 minutes to complete w/ either one. We are concerned.
Are these Destruction Methods still performing effectively? or is there something wrong?
Please advise.
thank you
Using Drive Cleanser.
Done in Windows.
Hello Alpha,
Thank you for replying.
I appreciate the additional information. I will forward this issue to our testing lab and as soon as I have any information I will update this thread.
Let me know if you have additional questions please.
Thank you.
Hello Alpha,
Thank you for your patience.
We have submitted a task to our Testing lab to get this issue reproduced. As soon as it is reproduced, we will have an estimate when this issue will be fixed.
I will keep you posted and if you have additional questions, please let me know.
Thank you.
I'm using Acronis 2010 build 7046 on a Windows 7 computer. First I tried shredding a 1 TB HD with Acronis running is Windows. I used the Fast data destruction method. After about 1/2 hour, the Operation progress had barely moved so I abandoned this method.
Next, I booted Acronis from my CD and repeated the shredding. This time it showed the progress bar and said it would take 1 hour and 6 minutes. This estimated time jumped around rather than gradually descreasing. After 2 hours it said it would still take 2 hours and was still at step 1 of 2. Eventually it completed step 1 after 3 hours and 10 minutes. I had checked the box to shut down the computer when finished which it immediately did. Apparently there was no step 2.
I repeated the shredding on another 1 TB HD from Windows. The display was as before with very little progress but that may be because it will again take 3 hours. Look at file_shredder.jpg attached. Note the scroll bar for the text and that the display window is too small. It says step 1 of 1 whereas booting from Acronis said 1 of 2 (but apparently there wasn't any 2). Scrolling revealed that the method is Fast and that all items will be destroyed. Running from Windows there is no estimated time for completion.
I've found that time estimates for cloning and backing up are extremely poor and usually way underestimated.
After running for about 50 minutes, I got a message that it couldn't delete F:\Document and Settings (See attachment cannot_shred.jpg.) I disabled Norton but that's not it. I selected Ignore and it continued. The progress bar hadn't moved but I've seen this during backups too.
I received more "couldn't delete" messages so I selected Ignore All. The progress bar moved slowly, showing about 1/16th finished after nearly 2 hours. Using the computer for email shouldn't slow it down much. Clearly booting from the Acronis CD is faster (but still very slow) and doesn't encounter the "couldn't delete" issues.
Running in Windows, it's takes too long to shred. After 3 hours, it's only 25% finished. See attached shred_after_3_hrs.jpg. So I canceled the job. It then said, "Data destruction completed successfully." I clicked OK and then it said "Acronis True Image has stopped working. Close program." It didn't shred the disk as it still has lots of files on it.
I decided to boot from the Acronis CD to again try shredding this second 1 TB HD. This time I used Acronis True Image Home 2011 build 5519. Again I chose the Fast method and checked the box to shut down the computer when finished. This 2011 version runs much slower than the 2010 CD. I started at 8:20pm and it estimated 1:31 to finish and showed step 1 of 4. Using the progress bar, it was about 20% finished after 1 hour. Progress linearly increased reaching 50% after 3 hours and 20 minutes when I went to bed. During this time, it estimated completion to be between 1:06 and 1:31 hours. It completed during the night and based on the progress it took nearly 7 hours. In the morning, when I boot the computer, I used Windows Manage to examine the disk. It is "unallocated" so I hope all files are actually destroyed.
Overall shredding is far too slow for both 2010 and 2011. Running 2010 from Windows fails because it detects use of the files. I'd think the software should lock the drive. Running from the Acronis CD is under total control of Acronis software and should complete much faster.
