2

As you know, any disk used in Solaris has to have a label (if there isn't any, you can just use "format").

My problem is I want to unlabel a disk for testing purposes. Is there any command that does this?

Thanks!

abyx
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4 Answers4

4

Answering myself here:

dd if=/dev/zero of=$HARDDRIVE count=16

This overwrites the label, and a "format label" is required in order for the drive to be usable again.

abyx
  • 413
  • How do you know which $HARDDRIVE value to use ? I've tried

    dd if=/dev/zero of=/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 count=16, witouth success...

     – Kami Sep 03 '10 at 08:41
  • @Kami I currently have no Solaris box available, but if I'm not mistaken, I used the output of format to see which device I needed – abyx Sep 24 '10 at 09:20
1

I always used a linux life CD to remove all partitions and repartition the disk. That will remove all labels. That, ofcourse is only an option if the disk content is disposable... ;-)

EricSchaefer
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1

Looks like you found your solution, but dd is a sledgehammer hitting a nail. Take a look at the man page for fmthard, I think it's a little more elegant, and supported.

Justin Ellison
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0

dd if=/dev/zero of=$HARDDRIVE count=16 will not work if it is efi label, we have to change to smi label and then run dd to remove label:

format -e $HARDDRIVE
select l, and 0 (for SMI label)
dd if=/dev/zero of=$HARDDRIVE count=16enter code here
prtvtoc $HARDDRIVE ( check partition map, it should give invalid vtoc)
Aashutosh jha
  • 101