From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat May 2 21:38:59 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 69A1E149 for ; Sat, 2 May 2015 21:38:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2B83B188F for ; Sat, 2 May 2015 21:38:58 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-64-237.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.64.237]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E5E4E24DE1; Sat, 2 May 2015 23:38:55 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id t42LcsGA001943; Sat, 2 May 2015 23:38:54 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 2 May 2015 23:38:54 +0200 From: Polytropon To: "William A. Mahaffey III" Cc: "FreeBSD Questions !!!!" Subject: Re: How to restore a USB drive converted to bootable Message-Id: <20150502233854.c80bc5ae.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <5544DBA2.1030102@hiwaay.net> References: <5543FAA3.7050907@hiwaay.net> <441tiz3wrx.fsf@lowell-desk.lan> <5544DBA2.1030102@hiwaay.net> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 02 May 2015 21:38:59 -0000 On Sat, 02 May 2015 09:20:09 -0453, William A. Mahaffey III wrote: > On 05/02/15 09:06, Lowell Gilbert wrote: > > "William A. Mahaffey III" writes: > > > >> I am about to do some OS installs (NetBSD & OpenBSD, as it happens) on > >> boxen under construction. I would also like to use UBCD on a flash > >> drive to memcheck those boxen prior to installation. If I prep a USB > >> thumb drive as either a bootable UBCD drive or an over-the-WWW > >> installer, I wipe out the drive for its original use. Is there a way > >> to restore the drive back to its original functionality if I wanted to > > Is "wipe the drive and reformat" what you need to hear, or do you have > > more requirements that you haven't made clear? > > > > > Wipe & reformat, preferably from CLI under FBSD 9.3R-p13 for > convenience, is what I'm after. Clearly creating a bootable UBCD or > installer will wipe out whatever was > there before, so I just want to get back to 'virgin' USB drive. In that case, the command # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1m count=1 should be fine. If there is any offending GPT metadata located at the end of the USB drive, estimate the size and also erase the last few MBs (use skip= to do so). There is no need to actually zero out the _whole_ drive. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...