how to clear the content of a used harddisk?

[Merlin M.]

I want to clear all information of a harddisk which was used.
how to use the command 'dd' to clear the content?

TIA.

[Kenneth_19]

Is 'dd' a must or other options is appreciated?

What I can think of is the 'pvcreate' command:

pvcreate -f /dev/rdsk/cxtydz (change to your raw device)

Regards,
Kenneth

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

This depend on what you wish to use the disk for. If you are re-using it for LVM, the method suggestion for 'pvcreate' will be fine. If you just wish to flatten the disk before throwing it away, then the use of 'mediainit' is the way to go.
There are 'man' pages for both of these commands.

Cheers
Michael

[Michael Tully]

Hi (again)

I neglected to mention that 'dd' can also be used, and it fine and much faster than using 'mediainit'

# dd if=/dev/zero of=dev/rdsk/cxtydz bs=64k

Substitute your device where cxtydz

Michael

[T G Manikandan]

check these links

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x24b53a7b3682d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x3c0f36e69499d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html


Thanks