From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat May 2 15:38:07 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 D1C146FB for ; Sat, 2 May 2015 15:38:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-oi0-x22b.google.com (mail-oi0-x22b.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4003:c06::22b]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 951F8154D for ; Sat, 2 May 2015 15:38:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: by oift201 with SMTP id t201so87378934oif.3 for ; Sat, 02 May 2015 08:38:06 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references :in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=6jnfKTuTB8gQzjQmJ8gLzY7XGFiHPJuBN1dgfqWUDgU=; b=0hFBQTZak2r0XKKQyAUNybSALS1khXI21PkcTbKI6YzJPaWqdDz38W8aB2EFGrpzBP EAeID6OEaVST3Gq++jmhXtCIBjGF0S0FM+bxTEtdzc92KxSF70AkQC0VXdtWUEPESmq7 XA52eKcyfZ/SZlrSVwMMIzurdLJn3rwu7KDnMxHnvF4uM6g7e1qUDMue+/TcOzphqLMw 9X1ePnwl/JziYufwf5dgLM6jANfRNtosSSERwyutEbb4ry7QHAir6wxorIbZDhR6eRFJ EBwmHhbZRETwOwbcgQhM+ChKZMJgKUJmlQ+eolv+PvQ9Za1eW5JseBqzgcXp1PG2JjNS mDRg== X-Received: by 10.202.183.214 with SMTP id h205mr6683887oif.87.1430581086912; Sat, 02 May 2015 08:38:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.localdomain ([209.181.150.218]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPSA id t7sm4800351oie.22.2015.05.02.08.38.05 for (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128); Sat, 02 May 2015 08:38:06 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <5544EF51.5070506@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 02 May 2015 09:37:53 -0600 From: jd1008 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.6.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How to restore a USB drive converted to bootable References: <5543FAA3.7050907@hiwaay.net> <441tiz3wrx.fsf@lowell-desk.lan> <5544DBA2.1030102@hiwaay.net> <44wq0r2e22.fsf@lowell-desk.lan> In-Reply-To: <44wq0r2e22.fsf@lowell-desk.lan> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed 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 15:38:07 -0000 On 05/02/2015 09:29 AM, Lowell Gilbert wrote: > "William A. Mahaffey III" writes: > >> 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. >> All you do (as root) is dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/whatever-your-usb-flash-drive's-name-is bs=1M