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Question

External F: HDDrive Sanitisation while continuing to work in

May 5, 2019 9:47PM PDT

Can I continue to operate Windows 10 on C: Drive (writing and editing files on External E: HDD) while effecting a Disk Wipe of external 3TB MyBook HDD and if so then what, if any, are the risks. All help gratefully reeived. ozdennisb Melbourne Vic Australia

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Might be slow going.
May 5, 2019 10:03PM PDT

3TB wipe over USB can take many hours. You may be unhappy but that's about it.

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External F: HDDrive Sanitisation
May 5, 2019 10:12PM PDT

Thankyou R Proffitt. The system runs on Intel i7 and Windows 7 64 Bit so that's not as slow as it could be. My main worry is risk to data on E: Drive. Any comment?

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Only if you don't have backup copies.
May 5, 2019 10:24PM PDT

There was a long deep report about losing data on drives done by CERN and it along with all the data loss stories here can be summed up by what every moderator will tell you.

"We only lose what we don't back up."

Now while nothing seems dangerous here, if you are not ready for data loss by your or some other mistake then you are not ready.

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External F: HDDrive Sanitisation
May 5, 2019 10:33PM PDT

Thankyou. Inasmuch as the data is on external HDD E: Drive and the Backup is on external F: Drive, my dilemma is apparent. What prompts me to do this is that the back has malfunctioned to the point where if no longer works. Am i right in assuming that i have no option other than to disk wipe the F: drive and then start another backup onto it. A tedious but necessary process. Thanks for your help.

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Answer
Erase hdd
May 6, 2019 6:48AM PDT

Connect this 3TB unit and use disk management to delete all the partitions.

Partition to your liking and then format it.

See if a backup will now work.

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External F: HDDrive Sanitisation
May 6, 2019 5:10PM PDT

Thankyou . i shall try this and see how it works.