From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 2 17:11:06 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [8.8.178.115]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 77A6F1110 for ; Wed, 2 Jan 2013 17:11:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fbsd8@a1poweruser.com) Received: from mail-03.name-services.com (mail-03.name-services.com [69.64.155.195]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6532517ED for ; Wed, 2 Jan 2013 17:11:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [10.0.10.3] ([173.88.197.103]) by mail-03.name-services.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675); Wed, 2 Jan 2013 09:11:06 -0800 Message-ID: <50E46A27.9000202@a1poweruser.com> Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:11:03 -0500 From: Fbsd8 User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.17 (Windows/20080914) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: nightrecon@hotmail.com Subject: Re: 9.1 won't install - GEOM/GRAID issues References: <201301012202040487.028FC6F3@sentry.24cl.com> <20130102143853.754647c0@fabiankeil.de> <201301021035130285.00194F38@sentry.24cl.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 02 Jan 2013 17:11:06.0912 (UTC) FILETIME=[27235A00:01CDE90C] X-Sender: fbsd8@a1poweruser.com X-Authenticated-Sender: fbsd8@a1poweruser.com X-EchoSenderHash: [fbsd8]-[a1poweruser*com] Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:11:06 -0000 Michael Powell wrote: > Mike. wrote: > [snip] >> Thanks for the reply. The disk in question has never been used for >> RAID, so if there is RAID metadata on the disk, I do not know how it >> got there. The disk is (I believe --- it's been a while since I have >> been inside that box) on a Promise SATA RAID controller, but RAID is >> not used and has never been used (I have a 3Ware controller for RAID on >> that box). >> >> When things settle down, I'll try to figure out how to sanitize the >> disk and try to install 9.1 again. >> > > If somehow some RAID controller ever wrote out metadata to the disk it will > be the last sector or two at the very end. Sometimes some GPT partitioning > schemes corrupt this too. If some alien form of GPT partitioning or some > form of RAID has written anything to this area it will throw an error when > GEOM 'tastes' the disk. > > You can zero both these areas with dd if=/dev/zero plus disk plus some > arithmetic. Another way, and I do sometimes when I go to reuse a disk that's > been used for a while, is to use the mfr's diagnostic utility. I know the WD > diag utility has an option to write 0's to the entire drive. Sometimes I do > this and then run the extended diags just to get a 'feel good' factor on the > media. Trouble with this is the larger the disk gets the longer it takes. I > just like media scans on old disks before I recycle them to a new project. > > -Mike > > Here is a little script named gpart.nuke that may help you #! /bin/sh echo "What disk do you want" echo "to wipe? For example - da1 :" read disk echo "OK, in 10 seconds I will destroy all data on $disk!" echo "Press CTRL+C to abort!" sleep 10 diskinfo ${disk} | while read disk sectorsize size sectors other do # Delete MBR and partition table. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/${disk} bs=${sectorsize} count=1 # Delete GEOM metadata. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/${disk} bs=${sectorsize} oseek=`expr $sectors - 2` count=2 done