Best way to wipe GPT disk?

[riahc3]

I have a drive which I think has a GPT partition table problem. How can I wipe it completely and rewrite the GPT partition table?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/[disk]

count to ten and then control-c. The partition table is in the first couple MB of space and will have been overwritten.

 

[razel]

Diskpart's clean command.

 

[Z15CAM]

DOS Boot and engage a copy of DELPART.EXE will BUST any partition on a HDD or SDD Drive.

 

[mikeymikec]

OP, are you sure it's not a problem with the disk itself rather than a problem specifically with the partition table?

 

[riahc3]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/[disk]

count to ten and then control-c. The partition table is in the first couple MB of space and will have been overwritten.

I dont want to go that extreme method

Diskpart's clean command.

A warning would be nice.

THIS WIPES THE ENTIRE DISK

DOS Boot and engage a copy of DELPART.EXE will BUST any partition on a HDD or SDD Drive.

Same thing. Too extreme.

Before you do you should know:1.Backup those useful data which you don’t want to wipe from the partition you are going to erase.2.One partition will become an unallocated space as soon as it has been wiped. Then, you can use this unallocated space to create new partition.
The way to wipe partition by using aomei partition assistant: http://www.disk-partition.com/help/wipe-partition.html

Good complete post with advice.

OP, are you sure it's not a problem with the disk itself rather than a problem specifically with the partition table?

The drive is pretty good. It happens every few days. I think its a ESXi/N54L issue...

 

[razel]

Diskpart's clean doesn't WIPE THE ENTIRE DISK. 'clean all' does. But I think at this point you can take care of yourself.

 

[riahc3]

Diskpart's clean doesn't WIPE THE ENTIRE DISK. 'clean all' does. But I think at this point you can take care of yourself.

Wiped my disk, that's why I warned everyone.

BTW just to clarify, Im not pissed at anyone as before I did this, I had a complete backup so.....but it would be nice to warn.

 

[mikeymikec]

Wiped my disk, that's why I warned everyone.

BTW just to clarify, Im not pissed at anyone as before I did this, I had a complete backup so.....but it would be nice to warn.

I think most people giving advice considered the context, you apparently knew what the partition table does, and you asked how to wipe the disk completely.

Personally I'm wondering if you're doing the computer equivalent of self-diagnosis based on something you misunderstood that you read somewhere which might not even be factually accurate.

Your response saying that you think the drive is "pretty good", that the problem "only happens every few days", doesn't sound like a typical software issue to me, IMO it sounds very much like a hardware issue. Have you actually performed any checks on this drive?

I'm trying to remember the last time I encountered a problem that was exclusively a partition table issue... the occasions that spring to mind involved dual-booting scenarios between a UNIX variant and Windows.

I don't use diskpart, but I would guess that razel's response was actually accurate. Deleting a partition doesn't wipe data off the entire platter, it removes the method of identifying the partition where the data is stored, which makes the data difficult to find (but not impossible).

 

[riahc3]

I think most people giving advice considered the context, you apparently knew what the partition table does, and you asked how to wipe the disk completely.

Personally I'm wondering if you're doing the computer equivalent of self-diagnosis based on something you misunderstood that you read somewhere which might not even be factually accurate.

Your response saying that you think the drive is "pretty good", that the problem "only happens every few days", doesn't sound like a typical software issue to me, IMO it sounds very much like a hardware issue. Have you actually performed any checks on this drive?

I'm trying to remember the last time I encountered a problem that was exclusively a partition table issue... the occasions that spring to mind involved dual-booting scenarios between a UNIX variant and Windows.

I don't use diskpart, but I would guess that razel's response was actually accurate. Deleting a partition doesn't wipe data off the entire platter, it removes the method of identifying the partition where the data is stored, which makes the data difficult to find (but not impossible).

The partition table basically says where on the disk partitions starts and where they end.

Maybe wipe wasnt the best word, I do agree with that. I think it would have been better to say "check, clean and repair GPT".

I ran chkdsk but since you are questioning it, Im gonna run WD's tool now. If not, Ill just use Seagate's which is universal.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Holy %^&*% there is a big difference between "wipe" and "repair."