Removing Linux partition from a disk??? - Linux Setup, Configuration & Administration

[Tom]

I went down the wrong path when I installed Linux and I would like to
start from scratch again. I attempted to fdisk the disk but fdisk won't
let me delete the Linux partition. How can I remove everything from the
disk?

Thanks,

Tom

[David]

Tom wrote: 

!!!! WARNING !!!!
!!!! THIS WILL DELETE ALL PARTITIONS !!!!
!!!! IT WILL WIPE THE DRIVE AND REMOVE ALL DATA !!!!
!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!!

cat /dev/zero >/dev/hdX

It can take several minutes on larger disks so be patient.

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[mjt]

Tom wrote:
 

.... are you running as root?
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
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end in Y.'"

[Tom]

Yes, I'm running as root.

Tom

mjt wrote: 
>
>
> ... are you running as root?
> .[/ref]

[Tim]

On 11/4/2003 7:56 PM, I believe that Tom wrote:
 

Um, just let the installer do it if you're gonna be starting from scratch.

[John]

On 2003-11-05, David <net> wrote:
 [/ref]
 

There should be no need to zero the entire disk; just the partition table
and boot record ought to be sufficient:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdX bs=1k count=1

--

-John (rr.com)

[David]

John Thompson wrote: 

That doesn't clear the disk though. All that does is zero the MBR
while leaving the data in place.

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Confucius: He who play in root, eventually kill tree.
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[Michael]

On Sat, 08 Nov 2003 03:22:17 GMT,
David <net> wrote: 
>
> That doesn't clear the disk though. All that does is zero the MBR
> while leaving the data in place.
>[/ref]
There really isn't any reason to zero the disk.

When the installer for an OS creates the partitions it will usually
suggest a format of the newly created partitions anyway.

Michael C.
--
com http://mcsuper5.freeshell.org/
Registered Linux User #303915 http://counter.li.org/