Easy way to clean disk

[Kaltar]

Isn't there and EASY way to clean a disk in unraid. ?

I don't want preclear og checked or anything. I just want it stripped of partition layout.

 

In windows you can use diskpart, and the clean disk.
Very simple.

 

Is there something similar in unraid.?

 

The reason i'm asking, is because I'm trying to add two disks to my server, that has been used for something else.
So now unraid fails to format the disks, because one of the disks contains some LVM partitions.
The other, Unraid wants to start a 4-5 hours disk clear, totally unnecessary.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Kaltar

[JonathanM]

3 minutes ago, Kaltar said:

The reason i'm asking, is because I'm trying to add to disks to my server, that has been used for something else.
So now unraid fails to format the, because one of the contains some LVM partitions.
The other, Unraid wants to start a 4-5 hours disk clear, totally unnecessary.

Do you already have valid parity?

[Kaltar]

I do, though so far I haven't put any data on the server.

 

Parity is irrelevant, data safe keeping is irrelevant, I just want the 2 disks "deleted" erased, cleaned. like a Quick format in windows. 

But unraid fails to format the disks. 

[Kilrah]

If you install Unassigned Devices, Unassigned Devices Plus and enable "Destructive mode" you'll have a red cross next to unassigned disks to clear all partitions.

 

Note that in any case to add the drive to an array that has valid parity either the whole disk will need to be written or the parity rebuilt, whether manually in advance or automatically after adding but a multiple-hour operation will have to take place regardless. 

[Kaltar]

Yeah I found out about the rebuild.

 

regarding the other disk, the SSD I wanted to use as cache, which had lvm's volumes, Unassigned Devices and Destructive mode, didn't work, it just said fail when trying.
So I did the "easy thing".
turned off the server.
Attached the disk to a windows computer via USB

started CMD, diskpart -> List disk -> select disk 1 -> clean

And done, that ease in windows.
I don't undestand why it is such a hassle in unraid.

[Kilrah]

I mean it's a linux system, you can always open a terminal and use parted, or dd if=/dev/zero the start of the disk to nuke the partition table if you want.

 

The GUI tends to err on the side of "not accidentally deleting something you didn't want to", although in this case it's probably a bug/limitation with lvm setups. Hasn't had issues deleting/creating anything for me so far.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Kilrah

[JonathanM]

1 minute ago, Kilrah said:

I mean it's a linux system, you can always open a terminal and use parted, or dd if=/dev/zero the start of the disk if you want.

blkdiscard for SSD devices is quicker.

[trurl]

1 hour ago, Kaltar said:

found out about the rebuild

Do you mean you found out you had to rebuild parity unless you let Unraid clear a disk added to a new slot? Makes more sense to just let it do the clear.