How to format HDD for using in HP-ux

[suju]

Hi
I wants to use a IRIX(Silicon Graphics INDY) formateed HDD in HP-Unix, Data is not important,
shall i need to format the HDD before using it.
I need to take the back up of the original HDD on this HDD using dd

[Ganesan R · Accepted solution]

Hi Nitin,

There is no need of formatting the HDD. When you run pvcreate on this disk, new lvm headers will be put into the new disk.

If you still want to erase the content of the disk then run dd on the disk.

# dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/rdsk/c1t5d0 bs=1024k

There is a command "mediainit" which will be used for low level disk formatting.

[Dennis Handly]

>Ganesan: # dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/rdsk/c1t5d0

You mean: if=/dev/zero

[Ninad_1]

Hi,

If you want to use dd to replicate data from one HDD to the one you had used for IRIX, then no need to do a dd if=/dev/zero ...., prior to this replication, because the use of dd for doing the replication itself would have overwritten all the data.
Also, you need not add the disk in any VG, because when you do a dd for the whole disk, the header information etc would also be overwritten by the data from your source disk.

Regards,
Ninad

[Johnson Punniyalingam]

Hi Nitin,

>>How to format HDD for using in HP-ux <<

NO, need for that,

by performing the "pvcreate" command will be enough " if still cannot pvcreate

pvcreate -f (option -f will force creating new pshyical volume)but you need to make sure to specify "current device files"

Thanks,
Johnson

[suju]

Thanks All,
Johnson.. I am not using LVM, So still can i use pvcreate,
Ninad.. Thanks.. I tried ur solution & its working .. r u an ex cmcite(Impress group)? My personal email id initin@rediffmail.com

Thanks agin.

[SKR_1]

mediainit & DD commands

Thanks

SKR

[Venkatesh BL]

If you don't use LVM, just run:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rdsk/cXtXdX bs=1024k ; replace 'cXtXdX' with the correct disk file name.