Question on formatting

freaksavior · Mar 22, 2013

Is quick, full with random data, or full with zeros perfom any different? I am getting an issue creating a single spanned volume in freenas and figured i would wipe them all and just start over and I will not waste days writing nonesense if it won't help at all.

I did google and got nothing conclusive so no smart remarks and lmgfty links please.

And a cat picture.

Aquinus · Mar 22, 2013

You're not giving us much information to work with.

Did you check the SMART logs to confirm both drives are in good health?

Geofrancis · Mar 22, 2013

you shouldnt have to zero out the drive it should just format it and initialize it.

what hardware are you using and what hard drives?
have you checked the SMART data on the drive to see if its 100%
the ones you want to check are

uncorrectable sector count
current pending sector count
CRC error rate
i think there is one for sata errors that will show if you have a bad cable. but i cant remember the name of it.

stick the drive into another pc and run cristal disk info. if the drive is good it should show as 100% healthy.

W1zzard · Mar 22, 2013

freaksavior said:
Is quick, full with random data, or full with zeros perfom any different?

quick format just wipes the first sectors of the partition and reinitializes the filesystem, so it appears as empty.

full with random data writes random data to every sector of the partition. zeros writes zeros instead.

if you use freenas which probably uses some sort of unix raid you might have to erase the fs superblock and change partition type so it doesn't try to autodetect the raid volume.

freaksavior said:
an issue

would be infinitely more helpful if we had some kind of error message or screenshot

Aquinus · Mar 22, 2013

W1zzard said:
if you use freenas which probably uses some sort of unix raid you might have to erase the fs superblock and change partition type so it doesn't try to autodetect the raid volume.

He is having trouble creating the RAID, not booting it. Trying to re-create the RAID would write over the super-block and the existing linux raid partition. I don't think this is the problem and if he does anything at this level he should clear the MBR and re-create the linux raid partition on both drives and not try messing with the partitions and super-blocks, that's just asking for trouble if you're not recovering data. It's wasted time that would otherwise be better spent just re-making it and I'm still not convinced that is the problem.

You can zero the MBR by running (in many cases):

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=512 count=1

Replace X with the drive letter that you're clearing the MBR of.
Be very careful doing this. You don't want to erase the wrong MBR.

You could even backup the MBR with something like this:

Code:

dd if=/dev/sdX of=~/backup.mbr bs=512 count=1

W1zzard said:
would be infinitely more helpful if we had some kind of error message or screenshot

This. Any errors or messages will help us narrow down what is going on.

happita · Mar 22, 2013

How to format a laptop drive to FAT32 for PS3 use?

I have a small 2.5" form factor Toshiba 120GB HDD (SATA 2). My brother wants me to format it to FAT32 so he could use it as PS3 storage. How do I do that exactly?

brandonwh64 · Mar 22, 2013

happita said:
I have a small 2.5" form factor Toshiba 120GB HDD (SATA 2). My brother wants me to format it to FAT32 so he could use it as PS3 storage. How do I do that exactly?

Plug the drive in
right click on it and click format
change NTFS to FAT32
?????
PROFIT!!!

Wrigleyvillain · Mar 22, 2013

Yeah just change it to FAT32 like he said and do a quick format. Default these days is NTFS.

freaksavior · Mar 22, 2013

I see I provided a fairly lack luster post. I'll get some more information and report back.

freaksavior · Mar 24, 2013

So the specific error was 20% left drive unreadable and uncorrectable. I think that sums it up.

Steevo · Mar 24, 2013

The cat isn't long enough.

Have you tested the drives independently to make sure one of them in the array isn't causing issues? I had to rag on SMART being almost worthless for anything...but it usually is, and only provides information after shit goes wrong.

What is creating the array? How about any issues with cables?

redeye · Mar 24, 2013

formatting a fat32 for ps3, what is needed is the "fat32" format program, because windows won't format a large size HDD... (yah, prob because windows hates FAT32)...

so, google "FAT32 format"... or use a linux command line the allows that (maybe GParted will do it)

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Question on formatting

freaksavior

To infinity ... and beyond!

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

Geofrancis

W1zzard

Administrator

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

happita

brandonwh64

Addicted to Bacon and StarCrunches!!!

Wrigleyvillain

PTFO or GTFO

freaksavior

To infinity ... and beyond!

freaksavior

To infinity ... and beyond!

Steevo

redeye

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