[CS-FSLUG] Hard drive won't format - or maybe stay formatted.

[Kelly Williams]

I had a issue like this before on a laptop what i used was dban to zero 
the drive and it fixed the problem. there might be a piece of windows 
still left in there causing havoc.

Kelly

On 8/5/2010 4:09 PM, Tim Young wrote:
>  You should have that fdisk on your system.
>
> man 8 fdisk
>
> The above command should give you the directions for fdisk.
> But basically:
> fdisk /dev/sdb
> (where /dev/sdb represents the device you want to destroy)
>
> Then there are a number of one-character commands :
> m = help  (it really means, 'M'enu)
> d = delete
> n = new
> p = print
> w = write & quit
>
> So, basically, start with pressing p and then enter.  Make SURE this 
> is the device you want to toast.
> Then, use d to delete ALL the partitions
> then, do a "w" to save it.  See if you get one of the errors telling 
> you it cannot make the change.  If it gives you an error, send it to us.
>
> If you do not get an error, then you need to go back into fdisk and 
> use n to create a new partition table the way you want it.   When you 
> are done (press p to verify it looks like you want it to), use w to 
> write it back to disk.  Again, look for any error and send it on to us 
> if there is one.
>
> You can do:
> fdisk -l
> (where that is a lower-case L)
> to simply print information about the devices and the partitions they 
> have.
>
>     - Tim
>
> On 8/5/2010 3:46 PM, davidm at hisfeet.net wrote:
>> I tried to check what is fdisk(8) thru google Sounds like it's not the
>> fdisk included dwith most linux packages.  Where can I get a working 
>> copy
>> and directions for using it?
>>
>>
>>> It's possible that some partition on the drive is being automatically
>>> mounted.  If that's the case, then the kernel's sense of the drive
>>> partitioning is fixed until the last partition is unmounted.  This is
>>> the point where good ol' fdisk(8) mutters, "writing partition table to
>>> disc...re-reading partition table," or something thereabouts.
>>> Basically, you're screwed in such a situation until you convince the
>>> kernel to let go of the last remnant of its belief about the drive.
>>>
>>> Qparted won't have any idea that this is the problem; it will know only
>>> that the ioctl() call that attempts to read the table back gives the
>>> same result it used to have.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ChristianSource FSLUG mailing list
>>> Christiansource at ofb.biz
>>> http://cs.uninetsolutions.com
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ChristianSource FSLUG mailing list
>> Christiansource at ofb.biz
>> http://cs.uninetsolutions.com
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> ChristianSource FSLUG mailing list
> Christiansource at ofb.biz
> http://cs.uninetsolutions.com
>