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Why is my /dev/random so slow when using dd?

Fresh7 days ago
Mar 15, 202635584 views
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Problem

I am trying to semi-securely erase a bunch of hard drives. The following is working at 20-50Mb/s But seems not to work. Also when I type It only gives me a few bytes regardless of what I pass it for bs= and count= Am I using /dev/random wrong? What other info should I look for to move this troubles…

Error Output

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

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Fix for: Why is my /dev/random so slow when using dd?

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Both and use an "entropy pool". When the pool runs out, waits for it to refill, which requires monitoring system behavior (keyboard input, mouse movement, etc.), whereas will continue to give you pseudo-random data. is theoretically higher quality, …

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