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

[Will Brokenbourgh]

On 04/03/17 11:01, Harry Putnam wrote:
> 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.
>
>
>
>
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Greetings Harry,

As far as making disks squeeky-clean, you could use dd and zero them.  
If your disks are large it may take a while, but if I'm going to install 
a completely new OS on a disk, I'll do 'dd if=/dev/zero 
of=/dev/[your_disk_here] bs=32M' or similar.  It gets rid of 
*everything* on that disk.

Sincerely,


Will Brokenbourgh

Sent from my FreeBSD desktop