[SOLVED] delete partition tables

izghitu · 12-21-2010, 06:30 PM

Hi,

How can I delete all the existing partitions on a HDD?

I tried using the following command:
/bin/dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=10

This does delete the partition tables but when I use fdisk to create new partitions, then I format those using mkfs.ntfs then the partitions are not seen by Windows.

Is there any other way to remove all existing paritions from a HDD?

Please help
Thanks

TB0ne · 12-21-2010, 06:34 PM

Run "fdisk /dev/sda". Delete the partitions from there, then use the DD command to 'randomize' the device.

izghitu · 12-21-2010, 06:36 PM

What if I need to script this and I do not know how many partitions are on the /dev/sda device?

is there any way to specify using fdisk to delete ALL existing partitions?

silvyus_06 · 12-21-2010, 06:43 PM

what about a gparted live cd ....

syg00 · 12-21-2010, 06:48 PM

Make sure you have the partition (type) identifier as x07, not a Linux type.

izghitu · 12-22-2010, 04:39 AM

syg00, you were right, I had to change the partition type to 7 using fdisk to make it seen by windows. The problem was not with the way I was removing all the partitions.

Thanks for your help