[OpenIndiana-discuss] How reformat a hdd to new state

[Harry Putnam]

Setup: oi bld 151_9 running on:
 Hardware: HP xw8600 - 2x Xeon  CPU X5470 @ 3.33GHz - 32 GB ram

I'm about to do fresh install on hardware cited above, of 161030 .. or
might use the 170314 hipster that was offered for test only recently.

(I've been running the test iso since it was offered  with no problems,
I've updated twice during that time, again no problems, but only in
vbox vms)

I will be reusing some of the disks from the old of bld 151_9 install
and installing a couple of 3TB new HDD along with reusing old disks..

OK so I want to completely reformat any disks I might be reusing.

I don't want to run into problems of having sliced disks ... I want to
reformat or erase or whatever one does so that a disk presents itself
to format as a whole un-formatted disk including the boot sector.

That is, like a new disk.

I really don't want to run into problems with old grub on the
boot sector instead of the new boot loader.

I've seen the posted web pages where its explained how to fix that
problem but it seems a bit complicated and possibly prone to problems
if not administered by an experienced hipster hand... which I am not.

I'd much rather just eliminate any chance of that coming up. And there
by maybe ensure a smooth install with no extra work to do during or
after.

At least two of the old disks are a mirrored pair with rpool on them.
I may have used one or more of what are now the storage disk as a boot
disk with rpool at some point in the last 3 or so years.

So how can I make those used disks be seen as new; no formatting or
whatever else in place.

One more item; I'd like to know if there is a tool one can point at
a disk that is currently in use in a mirrored rpool that will report
details of its state... slice or not etc.  I know `format/fdisk' will
do that to a degree but I'm a little shaky about running `format' or
`partition' just I can I slip up and cause some damage.  And after all
format/partition does warn you not to mess with disks in use.

Even if the tool is not a solaris tool... I can boot with about any os
and inspect disks somehow... I guess, anyway.