📎 AI Summary:
The original poster is asking if using larger block sizes (such as 4096, 64K, or 2M) when wiping a disk with zeros will still ensure all bytes are replaced. A respondent explains that larger block sizes increase write speed but don't affect the completeness of the data overwrite, and suggests that 4096 bytes is generally sufficient without significant performance gains beyond 32K. Overall, the discussion indicates that increasing block size can improve speed without compromising data erasure effectiveness.
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SavorySilicon

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Hello, my goal is to replace all bytes on a disk with 0s with a single pass. I have done this many times, but yesterday, I read that I can do it faster with a larger block size 4096. My understanding is, if I use Diskpart or other terminal program to format the entire disk slowly, it will replace all the bytes with 0s.
If I specify a larger block size, such as 4096, 64K, 2M, will it still replace every byte with a 0? Thank you everyone.
 

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Neemobeer
Specifying block size is just telling it how much data to write at once. Picking a block size larger than the default will speed it up. 4096 should be fine. There isn't usually going to be that much an improvement going larger than like 32K
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Neemobeer

Neemobeer

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#2
Specifying block size is just telling it how much data to write at once. Picking a block size larger than the default will speed it up. 4096 should be fine. There isn't usually going to be that much an improvement going larger than like 32K
 

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