Used dd now, then reformatted drive

bluehz · 03-15-2004, 02:14 PM

I was experimenting with some backup alternatives and used dd like

dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdd1 bs=1024k

I decided midway this was not correct so I canceled the operation. Then iopened fdisk and reformatted the drive /dev/hdd1, and add a single new partition. Unfortunatly - if I df the system it still shows the drive /dev/hdd1 as being 80% full. I have rebooted several times, and it still shows up as 80% full. Whats going on here and how do I zero that drive out again???

- thx

itsjustme · 03-15-2004, 02:25 PM

fdisk doesn't format partitions. It just creates them.

The partition still needs to be formatted. Unfortunately, I've never done that apart from the initial installation of a distro. I think it involves using mkfs.

Others can shed more light on this than I can.

good luck...

jailbait · 03-15-2004, 02:27 PM

mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hdd1
will create an ext2 file system. See:
man mkfs

---------------
Steve Stites

AutOPSY · 03-15-2004, 08:46 PM

also dd is a low level format, which is really high level.

'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1'

would be formatting your first disk first partition. you were basically formatting your drive with the binary contents of the other drive!