How fast KillDisk erases disks?

Erasing speed depends on many factors:

• Drive Speed: RPM and/or controller sequential write speeds - The most important factor;

• Drive Interface - interface link speed sets the theoretical maximum, though actual throughput is usually lower and limited by the drive itself:

  • SATA I: 1.5 Gb/s (≈150 MB/s);
  • SATA II: 3 Gb/s (≈300 MB/s);
  • SATA III: 6 Gb/s (≈600 MB/s);
  • SAS-2: 6 Gb/s / SAS-3: 12 Gb/s;
  • PCIe 4.0 (NVMe): ~2 GB/s per lane (x4 slot ≈ 7.9 GB/s).

• Interface Controller: Motherboard controller interface and/or HBA/RAID card;

• Machine performance: CPU + RAM.

For most modern computers and disks (manufactured within the last 5-7 years) SATA III standard is supported, so erase speed is limited by HDD throughput (disk write speed) only.

Our tests give the results: 10GB in average per minute per pass on average computer configuration and disks which age is up to 5 years old.

For example, 2TB Toshiba disk has been erased on Windows platform with one pass within 3 hours and 32 minutes, 14TB WD disk - within 18h 53m.

Real-test results produced by Active@ KillDisk (click erase methods below to view certificates):

• 2TB Toshiba (manufactured in 2015 year) SATA III (6Gbps) 7200rpm disk with [One Pass Zeros] and [US DoD 5220.22-M, 3 passes + verification] showing the average speed of 9GB/min per pass;

• 14TB WD (2019 year) SATA III (6Gbps) 7200rpm disk with [One Pass Zeros] and [US DoD 5220.22-M, 3 passes + 10% verification] showing the average speed of 12GB/min per pass.

Real-test results produced by our home-built KillDisk Industrial System:

• 600 GB HP SAS 15000rpm disk with [One Pass Zeros] and [US DoD 5220.22-M, 3 passes + verification] showing the average speed of 10GB/min per pass;
• 120 GB SSD Kingston SATA III SSD with [One Pass Zeros] and [US DoD 5220.22-M, 3 passes + verification] showing the average speed of 17GB/min per pass;
• 256 GB Samsung EVO 970 NVME SSD with [One Pass Zeros] and [US DoD 5220.22-M, 3 passes + verification] showing the average speed of 23GB/min per pass;
• 1 TB Kingston U.2 NVME SSD with [One Pass Zeros] and [US DoD 5220.22-M, 3 passes + verification] showing the average speed of 90GB/min per pass.