Re: Details of OBSD partitioning program?

[Nick Holland <nick@holland-consulting.net>]

Scott Ehrlich wrote:
> 
> I was recently introduced to
> http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/
> 
> but have yet to use it.  The description is simply that it wipes the
> writable area of a hard drive to zeros.
>
> What does OBSD's partitioning program do?   I've had troubles in the past
> when a Linux primary partition has been removed but not the swap, and no
> other partitioning tool other than OBSD's was able to handle and remove
> that swap partition.
> 
> So, does OBSD's tool wipe out the drive, or simply mangle the partition
> table enough to allow for proper repartitioning, keeping any existing data
> in the writable area intact or at least untouched, even if "erased"?

OpenBSD's fdisk allows you to edit the partition table on the i386
platform, without assuming it knows what you want to do.  "Here's a
partition table, edit it".  It is a little more difficult to get used
to, you occassionally have to dig out a calculator or paper and
pencil, but it will let you do what you want, and won't "protect" you
from things.

The other programs that won't do the job are "helping" you.
Don't you feel helped?

There is just no reason you can't do these things with other programs,
except that they don't think you are worthy.  It has nothing to do
with zeroing the drive.  There is no magic.  The partition table is in
a particular spot.  The MBR is in a particular spot.  Go edit the
thing.  What's the big deal?  The content of the rest of the drive
should not matter in any way, whether it is a Linux Swap partition, a
Netware partition, or a Windows NTFS partition in an extended
partition.  'Cept every other program seems to have some deliberate
conditional, "If there is a [whatever] on the disk, annoy the user".  

Yes, I like OpenBSD.  And I can tell you why. 8)

Nick.
-- 
http://www.holland-consulting.net