From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 15 19:14:44 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF21A16A4CE for ; Thu, 15 Jan 2004 19:14:44 -0800 (PST) Received: from chen.org.nz (chen.org.nz [210.54.19.51]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDFFF43D66 for ; Thu, 15 Jan 2004 19:14:43 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jonc@chen.org.nz) Received: by chen.org.nz (Postfix, from userid 1000) id A49EB13620; Fri, 16 Jan 2004 16:14:41 +1300 (NZDT) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 16:14:41 +1300 From: Jonathan Chen To: fbsd_user Message-ID: <20040116031441.GB93061@grimoire.chen.org.nz> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i cc: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD. ORG" Subject: Re: zero out unused HD space X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 03:14:45 -0000 On Thu, Jan 15, 2004 at 08:25:27PM -0500, fbsd_user wrote: > I am trying to zero out all the unused disk space in the FBSD system > Hard Drive. > Using this command > dd if=/dev/zero of=filler bs=1m > > but get error message saying file system full and have file named > filler. > > I don't think this commands is doing what I want. Why not? All this means that what used to be unused disk space has now been taken by the file "filler", which happens to be full of zeros. If you now "rm filler", this frees up the disk space again; the now free disk-space now contains mostly zeros (it won't stay that way for long on an active system). -- Jonathan Chen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door" - W.E. Channing