Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:11:03 -0500 From: Fbsd8 <fbsd8@a1poweruser.com> To: nightrecon@hotmail.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 9.1 won't install - GEOM/GRAID issues Message-ID: <50E46A27.9000202@a1poweruser.com> In-Reply-To: <kc1m2a$gbh$1@ger.gmane.org> References: <201301012202040487.028FC6F3@sentry.24cl.com> <20130102143853.754647c0@fabiankeil.de> <201301021035130285.00194F38@sentry.24cl.com> <kc1m2a$gbh$1@ger.gmane.org>
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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
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