I decided to format my 3TB HDD before installing Windows 7 which I am upgrading to Windows 8 imidiately anyways and I chose to use Acronis DriveCleanser WD Edition from a bootable CD. I don’t usually have a lot of time I read the descriptions of the complicated algorithms DriveCleanser can use to write zeroes to the hard drive and I chose the Fast option one pass instead of one of the extremely secure options.
It calculated that it would take 35 minutes the bar made it to the end after pass one of two but stopeed for over 15 minutes on 4 seconds left. As I said I don’t have a lot of time so I want to cancle with installing my OS.
How much benefit does running a write zeros algorithm on a HDD before installing the OS have? Compared to WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows write zeros?
