Time needed to erase 250GB

[lbaclin]

Hi everybody!
I searched the forums but didn't find an answer to my question:

After having a problem with a digital camera on my imac 20", I decidd to re-install everything, so I began by backupping all the data, put the OSX disk and tried to "zeroting" the 250 GB HD, its has been 5 hours, and the thing is stuck on "creating partition map" for the last two hours is that normal or is the system running crazy? So my exact question is how much time is needed to put zeros on 250GB?
Thank you.
Loli

[ElDiabloConCaca]

A long, long time.

It took my machine nearly 4 hours to write zeros to a 20GB hard drive about 4 years ago. Multiply that by 12 and you'll probably be waiting two days!

Of course, this process is probably a lot faster now than it was 4 years ago -- but I would still expect to wait nearly 8 hours or more for a complete format and zero-write to a 250GB hard drive.

As far as I can remember, though, when writing zeros, the status message was actually "Writing zeroes to disk..." or something like that. I cannot suggest interrupting the process if you think it's hanging, since that may (or may not) damage the drive. My only suggestion is to be very patient and see what happens.

[lbaclin]

Thank you for your response.
the "writing zeros" phase in itself took about 2 hours and a half, and since it says "creating partition map" but without the progression bar... so I'm a bit lost...

I'll tell you what

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Hmmm... that actually sounds like it might be stuck, but I would still be patient and give it time. Usually the partition map creation takes very little time, but after a complete zero-write, I can't say how long it should take.

[Mikuro]

I don't think it should take any longer than normal. It sounds like it's stuck to me. I'd force-quit and reformat it again (don't bother zeroing it again, though). It shouldn't take more than a minute or so.

I'm not 100% sure that would be safe, but my instinct is that it could only cause "soft" damage that would be fixed during the reformat.

[barhar]

'After having a problem with a digital camera on my imac 20", I decided to re-install everything ...', why the shotgun approach?

Perhaps, listing the camera's model and the specific problem(s) you are encountering, may produce an answer that does not require the complete re-installation of MacOS X (version ?). Also, since you are re-installing MacOS X (v. ?) - is there really a need to select the 'Erase' tab's 'Security Options...' button's 'Zero Out Data' feature?

[lbaclin]

The problem was a battery shutdown of the camera (a new JVC with HD) which caused several problems: the computer didn't boot, or booted on terminal, and couln't repare the permission, and so on and so on... that's what decided the re-installing of 10.4 (tiger)

[lbaclin]

News from the front: re-partitionning (1 partition) took 30 seconds after the forced-quit, since that, re-installation completed and everything seems OK... I'll update if we have other problems...

And I read somewhere in the forum that there were known problems about HD, can you tell me more?