8 Way Random Write Format forever!

[TimDaddy]

I sold my old iMac on ebay today. Last Thursday, in preperation for the new owner, I decided to erase my hard disk the most secure way. I booted from cd, opened disk utility, and clicked on erase. I chose "8 Way Random Write Format" because this appeared to leave my old data all but impossible for the average person to recover. Now, at 3:26 AM Wednesday, it is only a little over halfway finished! I can't remember what the status had been showing. It was something like "erasing data" or "writing random characters" or something like that. I was thinking about trying to stop it while in progress, and trying again with a quiker, less secure method. But, the status now says "Creating Partition Map". Now, I am really nervous about stopping this while in progress. I definately don't want to screw up a computer that isn't even mine any more! So, what happens if I do stop it? Will I still be able to reboot and start over, or will I screw something up because it didn't get to finish "creating partition map". I'm really thinking that as long I can boot from cd, I can't do any permanent damage. But, I really have no basis for that thinking! If anyone knows anything, please help me! This guy is about to give me over $900, I can't leave him waiting another week! If he pays me on Wednesday, I would prefer to ship by Thursday. If my only solutions will take a little longer, I may be able to keep him happy by offering a small discount in exchange for waiting until Friday or Saturday to ship.

By the way... I have a 60 GB hard disk. Assuming I am able to stop what is in progress, does anyone know how long it will take if I select "zero all data"? Or, with the progress that was made with this attempt, should I be fairly safe without selecting any options and clicking "erase"?

Thank You in advance for any help I receive!

 

[MoparShaha]

Stopping it won't create any problems. Just reformat it again with "zero all data". It might take a few hours though.

 

[TimDaddy]

Thanks for setting my mind at ease. I restarted the computer began zeroing the drive. After less than ten minutes it is about 20% finished! I'll have this baby ready to ship by the time I get paid! I appreciate your advice, I was already planning my "Can I have an extra week before shipping?" speech. That would certainly blow my 100% positive feedback rating!

 

[sonofslim]

i zeroed a 120gig drive and it took an hour or two. i'm not surprised that an 8-way write would take ages.

 

[TimDaddy]

i zeroed a 120gig drive and it took an hour or two. i'm not surprised that an 8-way write would take ages.

I've never done this before. I knew it would be slow, but I really underestimated!

 

[idkew]

yeah- that is a lot of work.

from the sounds of it, you were randomly writing 1s and 0s all over the platters 8 times. At least a zero all data starts at A and writes zeros to Z. The random one probably spent half its time jumping around and the other half writing.