I borrowed a 14TB external hard drive from a friend to share some big file collections, but I discovered it had a single 2TB partition along with some Windows recovery partitions that needed to be removed. Instead of just creating a new partition with the leftover space, I decided to use the 'clean all' command in Diskpart to clear everything out completely. Now, it's been 14 hours, and it's still running. I'm pretty unsure about how long this process should actually take and when I can start using the drive again. I can't get more specs on the drive without disconnecting it, but I know it was part of a server and has a broken clip that I've reseated. Any insights?
3 Answers
Usually, the 'clean' command should only take seconds, not hours. The 'clean all' command is meant to wipe all the data securely, but it sounds like something might be wrong if it's taking that long. Depending on the drive's condition and how it's connected, issues could arise that's causing the delay.
I've never tried 'clean all'; I typically just go with 'clean'. I suggest you try that instead and format the drive afterward. It's faster and should do the job for most purposes.
The 'clean' command just frees up space without securely erasing data, while 'clean all' writes zeros to every sector, which is what takes much longer. If it’s freezing or not making progress, you might want to consider resetting the power to the drive. If it doesn’t respond, you should check the drive’s status afterward once it's rebooted.
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