[Quick question about wiping free space vs. entire drive?]

@Augeas

 

You seriously responded better to my question than anyone has ever answered me before ahaha! If I could get answers that concise on programming forums I would have my own OS by now, but on to the topic. Yeah I didn't know that a "full format" took that long, I always did quick format so roughly 20s-1min. I did only do 1 pass but why does it really matter how many? I mean I know that 7+ is overkill unless you're a terrorist/whatever but is there an inherently bad quality about doing so? Thanks again!

[Quick question about wiping free space vs. entire drive?]

Yeah, I get that much, my question is, since the drive is already blank, WHY is there such a huge time difference no matter which option I choose?

[Quick question about wiping free space vs. entire drive?]

I was cleaning up an external drive the other day and thought I would give it a once over before using it again, so naturally I used CCleaner and wiped the free space. Worked great, only took 3 hours maybe? Then I decided there was nothing better going on so I ran "wipe the whole drive" now HERE is where my question comes in. Once I selected the whole drive instead of free space, it was up to 5.6 DAYS to do "the same" job. Just to clarify, when I said I cleaned up the drive, I did mean deleting everything after moving to my tower. Now I'm puzzled, why does a "free space" free space wipe take so much less time than a "whole disk" free space wipe? Any help would be great!